wean
/ˈwiːn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.72 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.
Transitive verb
verb
To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.
Transitive verb
name
A locality in the Gunnedah council area and the Narrabri council area, northern New South Wales, Australia.
Example Sentences
- "The cow has weaned her calf."
- "Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned."
- "His generation was weaned on 1980's music."
- "The kittens are finally weaning."
- "He managed to wean himself off heroin."
- "With Marvin getting older ... and walking now ... I thought it was time to start weaning him off of his bottle."
Etymology
From Middle English wenen, from Old English wenian (“to accustom; habituate; train; prepare; make fit”), from Proto-West Germanic *wannjan, from Proto-Germanic *wanjaną (“to make wont; accustom”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive for; wish; love”). Cognate with Dutch wennen, German gewöhnen, Danish vænne, Swedish vänja, Icelandic venja. Related via PIE to wone, wont, and wonder, and perhaps win.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *wenh₁-, wenen, wenian, *wannjan, *wanjaną