v. (wk.)
Gaw past wonted, pres. 3 sg. wontes, wont (perhaps subj.); Pe past wonted; Erk past 3 pl. wontyd; WA want, pres. 3 sg. wantis, wantes, vantes, past pl. wantid, wantyd
‘to want, lack, fall short of (impers.)’
(Modern English want)Usually regarded as a direct loan of the ON v. represented by OIcel vanta (wk. 2) ‘to want, lack’, generally derived from PGmc *wanatōn-, a derivation on the Gmc adj. represented by OIcel vanr, OE wan etc. (see wont (n.)); other than in English, this formation with the -t suffix is known only in Scandinavia (and the probable loan from the same source in NFris waant v., see OED). The alternative explanation, that the ON v. derives from the neut. nom./acc. sg. form of the ON adj. (van-t), is occasionally found in older scholarship (see e.g. Skeat 1882, 1892: 468), and TGD interpret the ME v. as a formation on the ME n. wont.
PGmc Ancestor
*wanaton-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
vanta, ‘to want, lack’
(ONP vanta (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far vanta, Icel vanta, Norw vanta, ODan vante, Dan dial vante
OE Cognate
cp. wan (adj.) 'wanting, lacking (etc.)'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C1
Common and widespread in ME (Orrm onwards).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 987, 1062, 2366; Pe 215; Cl 13, 739; Erk 208; WA 809*, 996, 1854 etc.