Forms: 1 wana (wona, also won), 2– wane, 2–5 (? 6) wone, 3–8 wain, 3–5 wan, 5 woone, 5–7 wayne, waine. [OE. wana (wǫna) wk. masc. (also wan str. neut.) want, lack, deficiency, derived from the adj. wana (wan, etc.), see WANE a. Compare Du. wan leakage, also the slack or unfilled part of a sack, Goth. wan str. neut. lack.
The development of meaning in branch II is due to the influence of the related verb WANE, with which the existing noun became associated as a noun of action. In some applications actual new formation from the stem of the verb may have taken place.]
I. † 1. Want, lack, shortage, absence of. Obs.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiv. § 9. Hit nan mon ne mæʓ call habban, þæt him ne sie sumes þinges wann.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 400. Anes ðinges ðe is wana [Mark x. 21: cf. Ags. Gosp. an þing þe is wana (where wana is adj.)].
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 145. Defectio omnis mali. Habundancia omnis boni. wone of alle uuele; wole and alle gode.
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 68. Þe treowe is misleued, & te sakelease ofte bilowen, uor wone of witnesse.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., viii. 30. Weping haveth myn wonges wet, for wikked werk ant wone of wyt.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 3478. Of no ioie nas þer wane.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 3121. Of fesaunce, pertris & of crane Þer was plente & no wane.
a. 1400. Sqr. lowe Degre, 322. The Cocke, the Corlewe, and the Crane, With Fesauntes fayre, theyr were no wane.
c. 1425. Cursor M., 5387 (Trin.). Faute of breed þat ilka tide was ouer al þe world so wide But in no londe so mychel wan As in egipte and canaan.
b. Lack, fault, defect. Obs. rare.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 223/1. Dispendium,… wonung, wom, wana uel henþa.
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 229. God ne wrouhte neuer þat þing Þat out les þorw his wonyng, ffor nis no wone on him I-long.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, ii. (Paul), 867. Blowmand bewte but wane or smyt of sawle and body togiddir knyt.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 307. Thilke suete, Whos beaute was withoute wane, This faire Maiden Adriane.
† c. Omission, shortening. Obs. (Cf. sense 4.)
c. 1315. Shoreham, Poems, i. 254. Þe wordes scholle be ised Wiþe-oute wane and eche.
† 2. Need, want, poverty. Obs.
a. 1100. in Napier, O. E. Glosses, I. 3865. Inopiam, wanan.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 192. God hit wot, moni oðer wot lutel of þisse eise, auh beoð ful ofte iderued mid wone, & mid scheome, & mid teone.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 29. And tah þu wone hefdest, oðer drehdest ani derf for his deorewurðe luue.
c. 1250. Moral Ode, 357, in E. E. P. (1862), 33. Ne mai non vuel ne non wane beon inne godes riche.
3. The amount by which a plank (esp. one sawn from an unsquared trunk), or a roughly squared log, falls short of a correctly squared shape. Hence, the bevelled edge left on a plank (by reason of one face being narrower than the other), or the imperfect angles of a rough-hewn log (the section of which is thus octagonal, and, according to the size and depth of the ‘wanes,’ approaches, more or less nearly, a regular octagon).
1662. Atwell, Faithf. Surveyour, 132. When they do hew any timber, they … allow nothing for the wanes. Ibid. They seldome hew nigher to square in this Countrey, then that the four wanes are as broad as the four flats, all which are equal to a square piece of the breadth of one of those wanes; & although those wanes be less in some places then in other, yet will they be of no service so deep as the deepest wane goes.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 9. I shall describe the General Strike in measuring Timber,… which is to see that the 4 Wanes are but equal to two Squares.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 852. The whole of the materials to be provided and sawed out square free from wane, of the several scantlings and thicknesses herein specified.
1875. Laslett, Timber, xii. 75. All the thick-stuff and plank to be cut straight, or nearly so, and of parallel thickness, and to be measured for breadth at the middle, or half the length, taking in half the wanes. Ibid., xxxiii. 272. The trees … are hewn into a square form, and have a small amount of wane left upon each angle.
† b. Comb.
1662. Atwell, Faithf. Surveyour, 133. Hath not he that buyeth wane-timber, that the wanes run not streight, as much need, and as much reason to have allowance for the wanes.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., April (1744), 44. The Seller of the Timber loses all the Gain of the Wane-edges; which Gain in short is a Cheat, altho’ a very customary one.
II. Action of waning.
† 4. Decrease in size. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1430. Euer stod þai [þe þre wandis] still in an, Wit-outen wax, wit-outen wain [Gött., Fairfax, wane, Trin. woone].
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 104. Bot thilke See which hath no wane Is cleped the gret Occeane.
5. The waning, or gradual decrease of the visible illuminated area on the moon. Now rare exc. in phrases, on, upon the wane, in (the, her, its) wane.
1548. Elyot’s Dict., s.v. Seneo, Luna senescens, the moone whan it is in the wane.
1561. Eden, Art of Navig., II. i. 29 b. The decreasyng or wane of the Moone.
1595. Markham, Sir R. Grinvile (Arb.), 70. The siluer Moone,… That with the floods fills vp her horned head And by her waine the wayning ebbs doth keepe.
1608. [Tofte], Ariosto’s Sat., III. (1611), 38. They easly might espy … How she [the moon] grew in the full, how in the waine.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, II. ii. E 4. When the Moone, by which the Seas are gouern’d, Retir’d his waters by her powerfull wane.
1720. Swift, Poems, Progr. Beauty, 72. Each Night, a Bit drops off her Face, When Mortals say she’s in her Wane.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 352. When the pale Empress of yon’ starry train In the next month renews her faded wane.
1838. Wordsw., Sonn. ‘’Tis He,’ 8. Yon Moon Doubly depressed, setting, and in her wane.
1820. Keats, Lamia, I. 136. She, like a moon in wane, Faded before him.
1850. S. Dobell, Roman, vii. Poet. Wks. 1875, I. 118. The old moon began to sink (Long, like her, upon the wane).
b. transf. and fig.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VI. lxxi. Can … One onely blot so great a light empair, That never could he hope his waning to repair? Ah! never could he hope once to repair So great a wane, should not that new-born Sun Adopt him [etc.].
1639. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 211. Now is our Berard in the third quarter of the wayne of his liberty.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 119. Like the Moon That’s past the full, into the wain he goes.
1859. FitzGerald, Omar, lxxiv. Ah, Moon of my delight who know’st no wane.
c. The period characterized by the waning of the moon, esp. regarded as a favorable, or unfavorable, time for various (usually agricultural) operations. Usually in phr. in (at, etc.) the wane of the moon, rarely unqualified, in the wane.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 101. And certaine will, that the root be digged vp in the waine of the Moone, she then being vnder the earth.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1876), 88. Sowe peason and beanes in the wane of the Moone.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. 60 b. Yet there are that holde opinion, that yf you sowe them in the wane they wyll be the smaller.
1631. Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 13. In part before & after the 8 day, called the encrease and the waine of the Moone.
1651. Culpepper, Astrol. Judgem. Dis. (1658), 4. Seed sown at the wain of the Moon, grows either not at all, or to no purpose.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 14. To cut Hair … in the Wane, causeth baldness.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 445. As for Garden-Beans, they are usually set betwixt November and February, at the Wain of the Moon.
1866. A. Steinmetz, Weathercasts, 41. In Suffolk, it is considered unlucky to kill a pig in the wane of the moon; if it is done, the pork will waste in boiling.
6. Gradual decrease or decline in splendor, power, importance, intensity, or the like, esp. as following on the culmination of a process of gradual increase; the declining period (of a person’s life, an institution, etc.); the latter part (of a period of time). Phrases as in 5.
Quot. c. 1375 perh. belongs rather to 1 b.
c. 1375. Cursor M., 3584 (Fairf.). Quen alle wittes ys him gane þen ys alle his wille in wane.
1546. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 67. Who seeth nought herein, his wit is in the wane.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 184. Thou which art euen in the wane of thy life … maist wel know what griefes [etc.].
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxii. § 2. In the waine and declination of Christian pietie.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 431. The Church by them planted had many notable wanes, and intermissions.
1612. W. Trumball, Let., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 612. His creditt is on the wayne.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., clxxxv. 821. Doubtlesse it will be a yeer of some unseasonable unquietnesse, one mischiefe arising in the waine of another.
1657. Heylin, Ecclesia Vind., I. i. 33. The authority of the Church was then in the wane.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 91. Christianity it self is in the very wayne here among us.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect., Scot. (1685), 31. Towards the wain of the Roman Empire.
1762. Goldsm., Nash, 54. Mr. Nash’s affairs being in the wane, he demanded the money of his lordship’s heirs.
1793. Mrs. Inchbald, Ev. one has his Fault, II. i. (1794), 24. I should have lost my eye-sight, and have been blind to the wane of her charms.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VIII. xii. 306. Signora Mencia … was still in fashion, though a little on the wane.
1823. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 371. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on it.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, xxv. In the wane of September, when days are hot and evenings are chilly.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlix. The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still … she slept on.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiii. V. 121. A sign that the influence of Portland was on the wane and that the influence of Albemarle was growing.
1885. Manch. Exam., 6 April, 4/7. It is quite possible that his power may be on the wane.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 93. It’s [sc. anæsthesia’s] persistence or disappearance has been used to measure the persistence or the wane of the disease [sc. hysteria].
1904. Sat. Rev., 13 Feb., 195/1. The French peasant either remembers or has heard his father talk of the great agricultural prosperity of rural France under the Second Empire. This feeling is perhaps somewhat on the wane.
