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I see no conflict between the two general meanings of "vain," as herein defined. One is no different nor the other.
re: African roots
but. [In current use 1676–7; origin unascertained.
For an alleged Negro origin there is no foundation; the quot. 1676–7 from Virginia does not refer to Negroes; later the word is found well-established in the New England States; evidence for an Indian origin is also wanting.]
1676–7 (Feb.) Grievances of Glouc. Co. (Va.), (Col. Office Rec., P.R.O. 5/1371, p. 326), They [Governor's out-guard] were by Beverly comanded to goe to work, fall trees and mawle and toat rails, which many+refusing to doe, he presently disarm'd them.
'wehen'
Hmmm? 'Wehen' is a verb meaning 'to sway', but I didn't find it in the Die Zehn Gebote. Nor did I find Weh or Wehe (meaning pain or woe), which is what I thought you might have meant.
'Wehen' describes a woman's labour while giving birth too.
To swear or to curse is 'fluchen' or 'verfluchen', respectively. Or even 'verdammen' (in a more biblical vein ;-) but that isn't in there either.
Lastly (after being so little help), I do know a saying using 'wehen':
Sich den Staub von der Seele wehen lassen
To let the dust waft gently from the soul
BTW, the German (and informal English) word for 'to tote' is schleppen :-)
well we in NY tend to drop the final en and and use schlep-- as in "i had the grandkid with me, and had to schlep around a diaper bag, too" and those small metal luggage carts? they are schleppers or schleppies.. as in "i came home from the trip with a ton of stuff-- but i had my schlepper and bungies with me, so it wasn't too bad"-- there are lots of german/yidish word in the NY english-- Essa Bagel is a local Bagel shop-- based on the german/yidish-- eat a bagel-- (i don't know the proper german verb-- so i not even going to try..)
Interestingly, the word vano, the equivalent of "vain" in Spanish has three distinct meanings.
1) Vain as in someone given to vanity, though it is not that commonly used
2) Vain as in "in vain"
3) The opening in a wall which contains a window or a door. It is not the window or door itself, but the hole in the brickwork. This one is, I think, much closer to the Latin meaning of "empty", as a vano contains nothing but air!
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