Middle English Dictionary Entry
wōknesse n.
Entry Info
| Forms | wōknesse n. Also (NWM) wakenes & (early) wocnesse, waknesse, wacnesse. |
| Etymology | OE wācness. For sense (c), see note. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
Note: Cp. weiknes(se n.
1.
(a) Deficiency of moral or spiritual strength, lack of fortitude, inclination to fall into sin or folly;
(b) inferiority of strength as a combatant;—used fig. of the devil;
(c) ?moisture [perhaps an error for wetnesse n., q.v. ].
Associated quotations
a
- a1225(c1200) Vices & V.(1) (Stw 34)83/21 : Þu hafdest me imaked glad and bliðe; ac ich hes haue forloren for mine wocnesse.
- c1230(?a1200) Ancr.(Corp-C 402)35/12 : Þe feond þurh hire word understod anan riht hire wacnesse [Nero: wocnesse; Pep: her feblesse and her brotylnesse of fallynge; Roy: hire febylnes & hire vnstabilnes].
- c1230(?a1200) Ancr.(Corp-C 402)119/23,26 : Ure god wiðdraheð him oðerhwiles…þet we cnawen ure ahne feblesce, Vre muchele unstrengðe, & ure wacnesse [Tit: waknesse]…as seint gregoire seið: ‘…muche godnesse hit is to cnawen wel his wrecchehead & his wacnesse.’
- a1250 Wooing Lord (Tit D.18)273 : Luue iwile þe, ihesu, strongest ouer alle, þat…te strengðe of þe helpe mi muchele wacnesse, and hardischipe of þe balde min herte.
b
- a1400 Cursor (Frf 14)27054 : Haue we botis þre quar-wiþ þat we mai strenghþid be, þe first for wakenes of our fa þat qua-sim wille mai kepe him fra.
c
- (1340) Ayenb.(Arun 57)95/6 : Þyse þri þinges byeþ nyeduolle…Guod molde, wocnesse norissynde, and renable hete.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
Note: With respect to sense (c), which is supported by a single example and was referenced in the print MED but was in the end abandoned in favor of the emended reading 'wetnesse,' note that the unemended MS reading 'wocnesse,' now provisionally accepted here, would fall in readily with a number of other ill-attested moisture-related words in wok-, wek (e.g. woke-thistel n., woken v., sense 2., weking ger., and weke n.(2)), all of uncertain origin but plausibly related to the Old Norse-Icelandic stem vök- (vökr 'moist'; vökna 'become moist'; vökva v. 'to moisten', vökva, -vi n. 'moisture'. The print MED accepted P. Gradon's suggested revision ('wetnesse') of J.K. Wallenberg's emendation ('wotnesse'), supported by the fact that 'wetnesse' appears again in the text of Ayenbite at 242/16. If that emendation, rather than the MS reading, is accepted, sense (c) of this word disappears.