Etymology
cp. OIcel
ván ‘hope, expectation, expected place’ (fem.) < PGmc
*wēnō; cp. the related OE
wēn, Go
wēns, OFris
wēn (‘idea, opinion’). ME spellings in <a> beside <o> indicate ME /ɔ:/ < ON /ɑ:/ rather than an unrecorded native ō-stem OE
*wōn in /o:/. The association of ON
ván with an habitual location (seen in OIcel idioms like
konungs var þangat ván lit. ‘there was expectation of the king’s being there’ and
allir vánir lit. ‘all the expected places’, and cp. also Norw
won ‘place where one expects to find something, fishing-place, hunting-ground’ (see TGD 257n and
OED, followed by Harada 1961: 104, Frankis 1983: 30)), may well have already been strong enough in VAN usage to enable the borrowing of
ván in the developed sense (‘expectation’ > ‘dwelling place’) into English, and hence
won (1) was always viewed by English speakers as a distinct lexeme from
won (2). Alternatively,
ván in its earlier sense could have been borrowed into late OE and the distinct senses could have developed independently in English.
PGmc Ancestor
*wēnō
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
ván ‘hope, expectation, expected place’
(ONP ván (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far vón, ván, Icel von, Norw vôn, ODan vån, OSw van, Sw dial vån, von
OE Cognate
wēn 'belief, hope, expectation'
Phonological and morphological markers
ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc */e:/ (1)
Summary category
A1*