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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--ween This week's theme: archaic words. ween (ween) verb tr., intr. To think, suppose, believe. [From Old English wenan (to expect), from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for) that's also the source of wish, win, venerate, venison, Venus, and banya. It's the same word that shows up in "overweening".] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "But well I ween that Gryffyth will never keep troth* with the English." Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings; 1848. [*troth: promise, loyalty] X-Bonus Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. -Gladys Bronwyn Stern, writer (1890-1973)

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