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A.Word.A.Day--ween

This week's theme: Archaic words

ween (ween)

verb tr., intr.: To think, suppose, believe.

From Old English wenan (to expect), from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for) that's also the source of wish, win, venerate, venison, Venus, and banyan. It's the same word that shows up in "overweening".

"But well I ween that Gryffyth will never keep troth* with the English."
Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings; 1848.
*troth: promise, loyalty

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