Etymology

cp. OIcel vandræði ‘difficulty, trouble’, a compound of vandr ‘difficult, requiring pains and care; choice, picked; zealous’ (cp. OS wand ‘changeable’, and the related OE words wandian ‘to hesitate, flinch (etc.)’ and the late n. gewand ‘fear, hesitation, scruple’) + a (front-mutated) derivative of ráð ‘counsel, advice (etc.)’, as in OIcel ræði ‘rule, management’ (cp. OE rǣd ‘advice, counsel (etc.)’, next to OFris rēd, OS rād, OHG rāt). The form of ME -reth is therefore clear evidence of ON input.

PGmc Ancestor

PGmc *wanda- + *rēðan

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

vandræði ‘difficulty, trouble’
(ONP vandræði (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

OE Cognate

cp. wandian ‘to hesitate, flinch (etc.)’, gewand ‘fear, hesitation, scruple’; rǣd ‘advice, counsel (etc.)’

Phonological and morphological markers

ON fricative /ð/ < PGmc */ð/

Summary category

A1*

Attestation

Widespread in early ME (inc. numerous occurrences in SW Midland texts); by the fourteenth century, more frequent in the N/EM than elsewhere.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

WA 528

Bibliography

MED wand-reth (n.), OED wandreth (n.), Bj. 92, de Vries Vandráðr (vandræði), Mag. vandráður (vandræði), Heid. wanda-, Seebold wend-a-, Orel *wanðaz; *rēðan ~ *rēðaz, Kroonen *wanda-; *rēdan-, AEW wand (2); wandian; rǣd