n.
‘lack (of good things)’
(Modern English want)Always derived from ON, from the st. neut. nom./acc. sg. (and adv.) form van-t of the ON adj. represented by OIcel vanr ‘lacking, wanting’; cp. OE wan, Go wans, OS, OHG wan (and as a n. in Go wan, MDu wan ‘lack’). The OIcel adj. is used quasi-nominally in such constructions as var þeim vettugis vant, ‘they were in want of nothing’, and it is therefore possible that the word entered English directly as a n. via such usages (the ME noun is markedly more frequent than the adj.). The possibility remains that the ME n. was formed on, or its development in ME influenced by, the related (and much more frequently attested) v. wont, where the -t- has a different source (probably < PGmc *wanatōn-) and so ON derivation is not certain on formal grounds.
PGmc Ancestor
*wan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
vanr (adj.) ‘lacking, wanting’
(ONP vanr (3) (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel vanur
OE Cognate
wan (adj.) 'wanting, lacking (etc.)'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C1
Relatively rare in ME: it is first attested in AW, but thereafter not recorded again until the late 14c.; often in N and alliterative texts, but also in Lydgate, Usk, etc. The related adj. (MED s.v. want) is recorded only from Orrm and two later ME texts from Yks. and Lin.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 131