Forms: 1 wæʓn, (weʓn), wæʓen, wǽn, 2–3 Orm. waȝȝn, 3–7 wayne, waine, 4–7 wayn, (5 wayen, 6 waayne, 4 Sc. vayn), 4–5 weyne, (5 wene, 6 weene, weane, 7 wean, whene), 5–7 wane, 3– wain. [OE. wæʓen, wǽn, str. masc. = OFris. wein str. masc. (mod. WFris. wein, woin, wīn, NFris. wein, wā(i)nj), OLow Frankish reidi-wagan (MDu. waeghen, Du. wagen), MLG., LG. wagen, OHG. wagan str. masc. (MHG., G. wagen), ON. vagn str. masc. cart, barrow (Norw. vagn the Great Bear, vogn cart, Da. vogn, Sw. vagn cart):—OTeut. *waʓno-z:—pre-Teut. *woghno-s f. Indogermanic root *wegh-, *wogh- to carry, etc.: cf. WEIGH, WAW vbs., WAY sb. Outside Teut. cognate words of similar meaning are Irish fén (:—pre-Celtic *weghno-s) wagon, Gr. ὄχος (Ϝόχος:—*wogho-s), chariot, Skr. vahana neut., vāhana neut., chariot.
The pre-Teut. form may possibly have been *weghno-s, corresponding with the pre-Celtic form; there is some evidence of an OTeut. change of we- to wa- before consonant groups.]
1. A large open vehicle, drawn by horses or oxen, for carrying heavy loads, esp. of agricultural produce; usually four-wheeled (but see 1 b); a wagon.
The word does not occur in the Bible of 1611, though Wyclif and the 16th-c. translators use it. As a colloquial word it survives only in dialects, but in poetry it is commonly used instead of wagon.
Beowulf, 3134. Þær wæs wunden gold on wæn hladen.
c. 725. Corpus Gl. (Hessels), U 143. Ueniculum [read Uehiculum], wæʓn.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2362. He bad cartes and waines nimen, And fechen wiues, and childre, and men, And gaf hem ðor al lond gersen.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8596. Þat þer nas non so heuy charge of wayn ne of oþer þinge þat me ne miȝte ouer grete wateres boþe lede & bringe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 5229. His suns all and þair flitting,… In weynis war þai don to lede.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 164. That apon his cowyn gat he Men that mycht [ane] enbuschement ma, Quhill that he vith his vayn suld ga Till lede thaim hay in-to the peill. Ibid., XI. 24. A litill stane oft, as men sayis, May ger weltir ane mekill wane.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxxii. (1495), 646. And at the laste heye is led home in cartes and in waynes and broughte in to bernes for dyuers vse and nedes.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 137. Thei haue noo howses, caryenge theire wyfes and children in waynes [L. in plaustris].
1449. Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Somerset Rec. Soc.), 92. For custom for our wene to Bristowe warde comyng and goyng, iiij d.
1473. Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 182. The said tenandis … sal led to the abbay viii score of fuderis of petis the abbai fyndand wanis meit and drink to the ledaris.
1521. Lincoln Wills (1914), I. 88. To William my son my bonden wane, ij oxen that cam from Hornecastell, [etc.].
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 5. And or he shall lode his corne, he muste haue a wayne, a copyoke, [etc.].
1576. Act 18 Eliz., c. 10 § 1. Everye person … shalbe charged to finde … one Carte Wayne Tumbrell … Carres or Dragges furnished for thamendment … of the Highe wayes within the severall Parishes.
1588. in Archæologia, LXIV. 366. For viij weanes of Pilleseley which ladd Timber from Penttridge, xvj d.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 19. Alexander the great set on fier with his owne hands the wanes of carriage taken from Darius.
1627. May, Lucan, V. I i. The horses trample ore Safely where ships haue saild; the Bessians Furrow Mæotis frozen backe with waines.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 46. Wee leade in our winter corne usually with three waines.
1688. W. Scot, Hist. Name Scot, I. (1894), 35. According to the old Proverb, They but fell from the Wains tail.
1731. T. Boston, Mem., vii. (1899), 106. On Thursday … came the wains with the household-furniture from Dunse.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 296. From the sun-burnt hay-field, homeward creeps The loaded wain.
1805. Wordsw., Waggoner, I. 29. That far-off tinkling’s drowsy cheer,… The Wain announces.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxv. The highways … were choked with loaded wains, whose axle-trees cracked under their burdens.
1827. O. W. Roberts, Voy. Centr. Amer., 210. A few large wains or waggons.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 608. The wains which carried the ammunition remained at the entrance of the moor.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxxi. The team is loosen’d from the wain, The boat is drawn upon the shore.
1872. Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 565. Wain, the obsolete form of wagon, is still in daily use in some parts of the United States, e.g. in the peninsula east of the Chesapeake.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 5. 197. To the lesser nobles … the long wain of goods as it passed along the highway, was a tempting prey.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 32. Some of the Avon villages are full of interest. Here you may see the great four-horse wain, common on the roads in the days of our grandfathers.
b. In local uses, applied to some particular kind of wagon or cart.
1534. in Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII., VII. 208. One weene with two whyles.
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v. Cart, It is a Cart when drawn by Horses, having two sides called Trills; but a Wain when drawn by Oxen, and having a Wain-Cope.
1796. W. Marshall, West Eng., II. 7. A singular kind of two-wheel carriage, for Horses or Oxen, is here [sc. Cornwall] in common use;… it is called a ‘wain’; and it is a hay cart, or wain, without sides, having only two arches bending over the wheels, to keep the load from bearing upon them! with a wince behind.
1832. Scoreby Farm Rep., 4, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The wain, a large cart upon broad wheels, with a pole, and drawn by a pair of oxen, is much used at Scoreby.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., s.v., The veritable Wain, now never seen, was a narrow, long-bodied vehicle, with two wheels only, and these at the hinder end. The front or foremost end trailed along the ground.
c. poet. A car or chariot. Chiefly fig. or in mythological use. In ME. often applied to the Four Gospels, symbolized as a four-horsed chariot (= L. quadriga).
c. 1200. Ormin, Pref. 21. Þatt waȝȝn iss nemmnedd quaþþrigan Þatt hafeþþ fowwre wheless.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 21264. Four ar þai tald, þe wangelistes Þat draues þe wain þat es cristes.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 258. See now þe secunde wheel in þis deuelis wayn.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 630. Wher halved is þe standyng estyval of fresche Appollo with his golden Wayn.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Jan., 74. Phœbus gan auaile, His weary waine. Ibid. (1590), F. Q., I. iv. 19. May seeme the wayne was very euill led When such an one had guiding of the way, That knew not, whether right he went, or else astray.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. III.), 86. Not when the moon accomplishing her way Upon her silver wayne … presents the day.
1706. De Foe, Jure Divino, II. 239. [They] jointly drive the Wain of Government.
1714. Steele’s Poet. Misc., 112. He … charm’d the Wain of Night along, With his soft harmonious Song.
1885–94. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, April xx. They set on high upon the bridal wain Her bed for bier, and yet no corpse thereon.
Proverb. 13[?]. All too Late, 7, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 250. Al to late. al to late. þen is te wayn atte yate.
c. 1420. Wyntoun, Cron., I. 640. Than to cry mercy is to lait, The wane þan standis at þe ȝate.
d. A wain-load, wagon-load.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. x. (1614), 395. Thither they bring euery yeare an hundred and fiftie waines of twigges.
† e. poet. Winged wain, a ship. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 194. The Masters skilfull most, With gentle gales driv’n to the wished Coast, Not with lesse labour guide there winged wayns On th’azure fore-head of the liquid plains.
2. The group of seven bright stars in the constellation called the Great Bear: more fully CHARLES’S WAIN. Lesser Wain: the similarly shaped group of seven stars in the Little Bear.
OE. had wǽnes þísl or þísla, ‘pole or poles of the wain.’ With Scott’s ‘Arthur’s slow wain’ cf. ‘Arthouris Plowe,’ Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 682; Arthur here represents Arcturus, regarded as the teamster or wagoner of the plough or wain.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 3. Swa swa tunglu … þe we hatað wænes ðisla.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. met. v. 5. Who so þat … wot nat why þe sterre Bootes passeþ or gadereþ his weynes.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 280. We iudged them to bee the chariotte or wayne of the south.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VI. xxii. I. 130. The starres about the North pole, called Septentriones, the Waines or Beares.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VI. 95. The … two Bears … Whose hinder parts and Tails contain The lesser and the greater Wain.
1703. Pope, Thebais, 521. When clouds conceal Boötes golden wain.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, I. xvii. Arthur’s slow wain his course doth roll In utter darkness round the pole.
1812. Cary, Dante, Parad., XIII. 7. The wain, that, in the bosom of our sky, Spins ever on its axle night and day.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., ci. At noon or when the lesser wain Is twisting round the polar star.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., 437. The-wain-and-horses, sb., Ursa Major.
1887. Bowen, Æneid, I. 744. Bright Arcturus, the showery Hyads, the Bear, and the Wain.
¶ 3. A rendering of L. plaustrum (lit. ‘wagon’) used in the Vulgate for a kind of thrashing instrument with wheels.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xli. 15. I haue set thee as a newe wayn [1609 Douay, a newe threshing wayne] thresshende.
1778. Lowth, Isa. xxviii. 27–8. Nor is the wheel of the wain made to turn upon the cummin: But the dill is beaten out with the staff; And the cummin with the flail: but the bread-corn with the threshing-wain.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. Obvious combinations, as † wain-axtree, -blade (BLADE sb. 10 b), -body, † -cart, -driver, -felloe, † -folk, -gear, -head (also attrib.), -horse, -load, -wheel.
1559. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 136. One pare of newe car wheles, both *wane ashe tres [etc.]. Ibid. (1557), 101. A pare of *wayne blayds.
1390–1. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 392. In factura unius *waynbody, 6 d.
a. 1566. R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (facs.), F ij. One preached or late not farre hence, in no Pulpet, but in *Waayne carte, That spake enough of this.
1552. Huloet, *Wayne dryuer, ingarius.
1360. Priory of Finchale (Surtees), p. liii. j gange de *wainefelies de fraxino.
1558. Wills Northern C. (Surtees), I. 162. Twoo gang of wayne fellowes wth heades and moldeburdes.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 53. It is a greate furtherance to have one to teame the waines whiles that the *wainefolkes are att breakefast.
1538. Test. Ebor., VI. 75. All maner of … *wayne geir.
1557. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), II. 128. Waynes and wayne geare.
1551. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 59. One *waynehedeyoke, one bolt and one shakill.
1557. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 101. One yron bound wayne and ij. unshode cowpes, with wayne hed, [etc.].
1562–3. Durham Wills (Surtees), III. 28. An yrone bounde wayne with a turne teame and a waine head shakle.
1727. E. Laurence, Duty of Steward, 71. The Steward should see that the *Wain-Horses and Oxen be muzzled, to prevent their cropping the young Springs.
1800. Hurdis, Favourite Village, 57. The stout wain-horse of encumbrance stript.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. 101 b. An other [oak] in an other place, that being cutte out, made a hundred *Wayne lode.
1700. O. Heywood, Diaries (1885), IV. 238. A wainload of timber, 8 oxen and an horse.
1559. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 136. One pare of newe *waine wheles.
b. Special comb.: † wain-beam, the pole of a wagon (used to translate L. temo); † wain-clout, the iron covering for the axle-tree of a wagon (see CLOUT sb.2 2); † wain-cope (see quot. and COPE, COP sb.4); wain-flakes dial. [= MLG. wagenvleke], the movable side-boards of a wagon, used to increase its carrying capacity; † wain-fork, a fork used in the loading of a wagon; † wain-gate1 [GATE sb.1], a gate for wains to pass through; † wain-gate2 [GATE sb.2], a cart-track, wagon-road; wain-house (obs. exc. dial.), a wagon-house, cart-shed; † wain-money, ? tolls collected from wains (E.D.D.); † wain-rake, a rake used in the loading of a wagon with hay, etc.; † wain-shackle, ? a coupling for a wagon (see SHACKLE 6 a); wain-stang dial., the projecting pole of a cart on either side of which oxen or horses may be yoked; † wain-string, ? = WAIN-ROPE; † wain-stroke, a curved segment forming part of the iron rim or tire of a wagon wheel (cf. STROKE sb.4); wain-trees dial., the axle-beams supporting the wagon; † wain-way, a wagon-road; † wain-weight, ? a wagon-load.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., III. 42. Let it creake afterwards, and let the brasen *wainbeame strong Draw both the wheels together ioind.
1650. Horn & Rob., trans. Comenius’ Gate Lang. Unl., Foundat. T 9. One overcom with wine guid’s the wain-beam [L. temonem] rashly.
1454. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 149. ij *wayneclowtez.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 5. The wheles … must haue an axiltre, clout with .viii. waincloutes of yren.
1596. Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 259. v teames, ij horse-teames…, vij wayne cloutes [etc.].
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 339/2. The *waine Cop, that part which the hinder Oxen are yoked unto to draw the Waine.
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v. Cart, The Wain-Cope, is a long piece that comes out from the Wain-body, to which Oxen are fasten’d.
1570. Richmond Wills (1853), 101. In the yard and parke … a pare of *wayne fleaks.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Wainfleeaks, the moveable side-boards of the waggon, adapted to heighten it.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 46. Allowinge to each waine two folkes, viz., a forker and a loader; and theire implements which they are to carry to field with them is a *waine-forke and a waine-rake; theire waineforke should bee in length aboute two yardes and a quarter.
c. 1680. in Sussex Archæol. Collect. (1849), II. 108. Richard Butcher … took out of ye highway well nigh an acre of land, and made an enclosure of it, and set up a *wean gate and horse gate.
1596. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1601, 414/1. Cum lie cairt and wane gait ad easdem [moras].
1661. Reg. Gt. Seal Scot. 18/2. Therefra alongst ane old waingate till you come to the Seggiesyke.
1569. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 34. With other out howses as followith … the furmost barne … the *wayn howse [etc.].
1791. Gentl. Mag., LXI. I. 116/1. After supper, the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen) to the Wain-house.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Wain-house, wagon house or cart house.
1626. Gateshead Church Bks. (E.D.D.). Recaved of the hie ward ffor *wane money, 16 s.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 46. Theire *wainerakes haue (for the most parte) theire shaftes made of saugh, theire heade of seasoned ashe, and theire teeth of iron.
1559. Richmond Wills (1853), 136. iij *waine shackles.
1876. Whitby Gloss., *Wainstang, the pole projecting in front of the wagon for carrying stone blocks.
1464. Inv., in Feodar. Priorat. Dunelm. (Surtees), 120. 1 cowpe-wayne cum *waynstrynges, precium iij.s.
1596. Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 259. vij wayne cloutes, ij hay spades,… a *wayne stroke [etc.].
1876. Whitby Gloss., *Waintrees, the axle-beams supporting the wagon.
1579. Nottingham Rec., IV. 189. The *whene waye goinge vpp they hill.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 38. The waine-way into this close is about the middle of Pinder lane, wheare yow are to pull downe a gappe.
15[?]. Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869), I. 241. Item of a *wayne weicht of leid, that is to say xxiiij futemellis, iiij d.
