Etymology

Though always derived from ON, two different sources have been proposed for wande Gaw 1161 (‘At vche wende vnder wande wapped a flone’): (1) It should most likely be identified (thus almost all commentators since Madden) with ME wand(e), wond(e) ‘stave’ (etc.) (PDE wand, and see wandez), always derived from ON; cp. OIcel vǫndr ‘wand, switch’ (cp. Go wandus ‘rod’, and perh. also OHG, MLG, MDu want ‘wall’), < PGmc *wanðuz, prob. a formation on the a-grade of the root of *wenðan- ‘to turn, wind’. The phrase under wande therefore means something like ‘in the wood’; the nearest analogue to this idiom in ME is c1440(?a1400) Perceval (Thrn) 211, ‘He welke in þe land … Vnder þe wilde wodde-wande’ (MED) (cp. also a1500 R. Henryson tr. Æsop Fables: Two Mice l. 179 in Poems (1981) 10, ‘Scho tuke in mynd hir sister vpon land, And langit … To se quhat lyfe scho led vnder the wand’ (OED)). (2) Emerson (1922: 382; but with no followers) instead derives wande here < ON vandi ‘difficulty’ (cp. OIcel vandi ‘a difficulty, difficult task; obligation, duty’, probably another formation ult. on the a-grade of PGmc *wenðan- ‘to turn, wind'), identifying it with MED’s wō̆nd(e n.2 ‘hesitation, vacillation; fear’. This n. is closely related to the adj. *wanða- as in OIcel vandr ‘difficult, requiring pains and care; choice, picked; zealous’, OS wand ‘changeable’. There are various related words in ON and also in WGmc, close in form and sometimes sense, incl. the frequently attested OE v. wandian ‘to hesitate, flinch, desist from, omit, neglect; fear, stand in awe; have regard to, care for’ (> ME wonden ‘to hold back because of doubt or indecision’ etc., incl. at Gaw 563; see MED), and a (less frequent, mostly late) n. OE gewand ‘fear, hesitation, scruple’. While it is therefore possible to account for ME wand ‘hesitation’ (etc.) as a loan directly from ON vandi (thus Bj., followed by de Vries, perh. influenced by the word’s N/EM distribution), it seems more sensible to allow for at least some input from these OE words, to which the sense range of the ME n. is after all noticeably closer.

PGmc Ancestor

(1) *wanðuz; (2) *wanð-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

(1) vǫndr ‘wand, switch’; (2) vandi ‘a difficulty, difficult task; obligation, duty’
(ONP (1) vǫndr (sb.); (2) vandi (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

(1) Far vond, Icel vöndur, Norw vond, Dan vånd, OSw vander, Sw dial vann; (2) Far vandi, Icel vandi, Norw vande, ODan wandæ, Dan vånde, Sw vånda, Sw dial vånde

OE Cognate

(1) cp. wendan 'to turn, go';  (2) cp. wandian ‘to hesitate, flinch' (etc.), gewand ‘fear, hesitation, scruple’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

D2

Attestation

(1) ME wand ‘stave’ (etc.) is N/Ein its earliest occurrences (Orrm onwards), but increasingly widespread from the late 14c.; see McGee 467, 495 (who regards these later ME southern uses as ‘literary or learned’) and OED, EDD (s.v. wand sb. 1, adj., v.1) (on the word’s dial currency).  For the phrase under (…) ~ see Etymological Discussion (1). (2) ME wand ‘hesitation’ (etc.) occurs in a handful of N/EM texts, earliest and most frequently in Cursor.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1161

Bibliography

MED wō̆nd(e (n.1) , OED wand (n.) , Dance wande; (1) de Vries vǫndr, Mag. vöndur, Seebold wend-a-, Orel *wanðuz, Kroonen *wandu-, Bj. 224; (2) MED wō̆nd(e (n.2) , OED wond (n.2) , de Vries vandi (1), Mag. vandi (1), Bj-L. vand, Heid. wanda-, Seebold wend-a-, Orel *wanðaz, Kroonen *wanda-, AEW wand (2); wandian, Bj. 225