adj. (comp.)
'more lovely'
(Modern English )ME wen is recorded very rarely, and only in stylistically-marked circumstances, but it is a reflex of an adj. which is widespread in the early Gmc languages formed on PGmc *wēni-, which authorities agree is an exocentric derivative of the n. *wēniz. In the early stages of the WGmc languages it only occurs with affixes, thus e.g. OS anawāni ‘suspicious’, OHG anawāni ‘probable’; OE unwēne ‘unexpected, hopeless’, MHG unwæne ‘not to be expected’, OE orwēne ‘hopeless’, OHG urwāni ‘doubtful’. OE wēnlic, OS wānlik ‘comely’, OHG wānlīh ‘probable’ and MDu wænlijc ‘uncertain’ could be deadjectival formations on this same stem or could be denominal (on the related n., OE wēn etc.). The adj. is recorded as a simplex in ON, cp. OIcel vænn ‘promising, likely to be expected; bidding fair, likely to succeed; (of persons) hopeful, promising; fair to behold, fine, beautiful’ and some authorities therefore adduce ON input to explain the non-affixed form and sense of the ME. But others (thus TGD, MED, GDS, Bj. and Emerson (1927: 258)) are more cautious, maintaining the possibility of native input as the meaning 'comely' is rare, but does occur in WGmc, inc. OE wēnlic (attested in texts (ÆHomM 15 and ByrM 1) in which ON is not particularly to be expected, although possible).
PGmc Ancestor
*wēni-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
vænn ‘promising, likely to be expected; bidding fair, likely to succeed; (of persons) hopeful, promising; fair to behold, fine, beautiful’
(ONP vænn (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far vænur, Icel vænn, Norw væn, ODan væn, Sw vän
OE Cognate
cp. OE wēnlic ‘comely’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CCC1
(CCC3)
There are only two citations in MED: Gaw 945 ‘wener þen Wenore’, where the comp. wener puns on (this variant form of) Guenevere’s name (see PS 945n.) and c1390(?a1325) LChart.Chr.A (Vrn) (a Worcestershire manuscript), where <wen> seems to pun on wan ‘dark’.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 945