wan en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /wɑn/ (General-American)
- /wɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /wæn/ (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English wan, wanne (“grey, leaden; pale grey, ashen; blue-black (like a bruise); dim, faint; dark, gloomy”), from Old English wann (“dark, dusky”), from Proto-Germanic *wannaz (“dark, swart”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Frisian wann, wonn (“dark”). The meaning and sense has been attributed to influence from Proto-Brythonic, Proto-Celtic *wasnos (cf. Welsh gwan. Irish fann).
Meanings
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Pale, sickly-looking.
Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.
1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24:Blanche smiled languidly out upon the young men, thinking whether she looked very wan and green under her rose-coloured hood, and whether it was the mirrors at Gaunt House, or the fatigue and fever of her own eyes, which made her fancy herself so pale.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’” “My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. // “What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, / If we sight naught but seas at dawn?” / “Why, you shall say at break of day, / ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’” They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, / Until at last the blanched mate said: / “Why, now not even God would know / Should I and all my men fall dead. // These very winds forget their way, / For God from these dread seas is gone. / Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say”— / He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!” They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: / “This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. / He curls his lip, he lies in wait, / With lifted teeth, as if to bite! // Brave Admiral, say but one good word: / What shall we do when hope is gone?” / The words leapt like a leaping sword: / “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!” Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, / And peered through darkness. Ah, that night / Of all dark nights! And then a speck— / A light! A light! A light! A light! // It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! / It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. / He gained a world; he gave that world / Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”
1892, Joaquin Miller, ColumbusShe looked wan and worried, and then finally she was not in court one day, and later [...] he learned that she was confined to her room with a bad cold.
1921 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Efficiency Expert”, in All-Story Weekly, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “The Trial”, in The Efficiency Expert, [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 188:Whome when his Lady ſaw, to him ſhe ran / With haſty ioy : to ſee him made her glad, / And ſad to view his viſage pale and wan, / Who earſt in flowres of freſhest youth was clad.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 116:I have read in some old marvellous tale, / Some legend strange and vague, / That a midnight host of spectres pale / Beleaguered the walls of Prague. // Beside the Moldau’s rushing stream, / With the wan moon overhead, / There stood, as in an awful dream, / The army of the dead.
1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Beleaguered City”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanzas 1–2, page 22:Instead, you wiped off the red lipstick with wadded-up toilet paper and forced a smile, leaving the locker room with a pale, cotton candy-colored lipstick that made you look wan and parched instead.
2020, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 45:
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Dim, faint.
’Twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.
1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Ballad of One-eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 52:
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Bland, uninterested.
Checking out her brother’s khakis, the gun propped in the corner, Olivia’s hiking boots and her wan expression, she wants to laugh. “Been hunting, I see.” Olivia’s face falls, as expected. Her brother’s obsession with guns and gross little expeditions appall her.
2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9:My position in the midst of the general indifference was hard to bear ; my silence weighed upon me like remorse. The sight of Lieutenant Castagnac filled me with indignation, — a sort of insurmountable repulsion: the wan look, the ironical smile of the man, froze my blood.
1867 July 13, “Lieutenant Castagnac”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume IV, number 80, Cambridge, Mass.: Printed at the University Press, Cambridge, by Welch, Bigelow, & Co., for Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, chapter II, page 35:A wan expression
“I have to admit, I’ve been tempted a time or two to chuck everything to go live in a place like this [Bogda Peak, China],” he replied. / “What stopped you?” / He gave her a wan look. “Celibacy.”
2014, Chris Angus, chapter 12, in Flypaper: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Yucca Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| wannest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| wanner | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Antonyms
aurora-colored (US) / aurora-coloured · tissued · colorific · discolored [⇒ thesaurus] (US · particolored (US) / particoloured · colorific · polychromatic · prismatic · rainbow-colored (US) / rainbow-coloured · multicolorous · kaleidoscopic · colorful (US) / colourful · multichromatic · colorful · multihued · rainbow · polychromate · obsolete) / discoloured · variegated · many-coloured · multicolor (US) / multicolour · multicolored (US) / multicoloured · coloury · motley · polychromed · polyhued
Deriveds
wanwood · wanned · wanly · wanness · wanthriven · wannish · green and wan
Synonyms
monotonous · blanched · chalky · dull · weaksauce · white · vapid · prosaic · pale · bleak · dull · uninteresting · wan · soporific · longsome · boring · beat · vanilla · insipid · ashen · dun · uncolorful · ashen-faced · lame · dim · heavy going · faint · ashen · dull as dishwater · ghastly · stodgy · pallid · drab · ashy · bland · wan · plain · whey-faced · sallow · exsanguious · unholiday · wan · pedantic · humdrum · bloodless · no fun at parties · lifeless · commonplace · snoozeworthy · lackluster · leaden · pasty · languid · blake · cold · insipid · dreich · livid · flat · uncool · ho-hum · basic · leaden · banal · sober · drowsy · washed out · corny · mindless · stuffy · pasty · static · sad · mundane · dull · uncolorful · plodding · tedious · lackluster · lackluster · pedestrian · grey · colourless · wooden · blah · straightforward · muddy · dingy · bland · prosy · colourless
Translations (58)
fr blafard (dim, faint) · lv nespodrs (dim, faint) · it smunto (pale, sickly-looking) · scn scarsu (dim, faint) · fi kelmeä (dim, faint) · de fahl (dim, faint) · grc ὠχρός (pale, sickly-looking) · gd bàn-ghlas (pale, sickly-looking) · de matt (pale, sickly-looking) · bg замъглен (dim, faint) · cs pobledlý (pale, sickly-looking) · uk блідий (pale, sickly-looking) · pt cadavérico (pale, sickly-looking) · scn giarnu (pale, sickly-looking) · dsb płowy (pale, sickly-looking) · la exsanguis (pale, sickly-looking) · bg болнав (pale, sickly-looking) · de fahl (pale, sickly-looking) · cs bledý (pale, sickly-looking) · cs slabý (dim, faint) · hu sápadt (pale, sickly-looking) · nl bleek (pale, sickly-looking) · hu halvány (dim, faint) · it cereo (pale, sickly-looking) · bg блед (pale, sickly-looking) · ru бле́дный (pale, sickly-looking) · is fölur (pale, sickly-looking) · cs sinalý (pale, sickly-looking) · it cadaverico (pale, sickly-looking) · ja 青ざめた (pale, sickly-looking) · es flaqueza (dim, faint) · fr pâlot (pale, sickly-looking) · fr indifférente (bland, uninterested) · gl cadavérico (pale, sickly-looking) · fr blême (pale, sickly-looking) · lv blāvs (dim, faint) · es palidez (pale, sickly-looking) · be бле́дны (pale, sickly-looking) · fi kelmeä (pale, sickly-looking) · nl vaal (dim, faint) · fr indifférent (bland, uninterested) · de matt (dim, faint) · fr blafarde (dim, faint) · cs nevýrazný (bland, uninterested) · ota صاری (pale, sickly-looking) · fi riutunut (pale, sickly-looking) · it fioco (dim, faint) · eo pala (pale, sickly-looking) · fi vaisu (bland, uninterested) · cs mdlý (bland, uninterested) · fi kalmea (pale, sickly-looking) · cs mdlý (dim, faint) · pdt blauss (pale, sickly-looking) · es indiferente (bland, uninterested) · it fioca (dim, faint) · el ωχρός (pale, sickly-looking) · fa رنگپریده (pale, sickly-looking) · fr pâlotte (pale, sickly-looking)