Etymology

< OE wēa-mōd 'ill-humoured, angry' (OE wēa is < PGmc *waiwō(n), cp. OIcel vá ‘woe, calamity, danger’, OS wē, OHG wēwa, wēwo), with influence from ON (so McGee, Anderson) on the vocalism of the first element <ay>, cp. OIcel vei (interj.) 'woe' < PGmc interj. *wai 'woe' (on which the n. is derived), cp. OE wā, Go wái, OS, OHG wē.

PGmc Ancestor

*wai

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

vei ‘woe’
(ONP vei (interj.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far vei, Icel vei, Norw vei, Dan ve, Sw ve

OE Cognate

cp. wā (interj.) 'woe'

Phonological and morphological markers

ON /ei/ &lt; PGmc */ai/

Summary category

A1*c

Attestation

The compound is well attested in a variety of dial in OE and ME, but this is the only instance of a spelling <way> (next to the usual ME forms <wa> and <we>).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Pat 492

Bibliography

MED wē-mọ̄d (adj.) , OED wemod (adj.) , HTOED , de Vries vei, Mag. vei, Orel *wai, Kroonen *wai, AEW wā, wǣ