What Is Wend/wending?

[Barsel]

Mamyalynne I had gone to bed before you started your thread last night so I'm listening now, but I am curious to know about the word wend/wending as I've never heard it before.

[Old_Geezer]

Without looking it up it's sort of winding isn't it ? One may refer to a wending path. Indirect route.

[Frank97]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wending

[grasscarp]

I can remember a story about somebody was - wending her weary way Westward when -
It is sort of meandering

[andy-hughes]

I always understood it to mean - making your way somewhere.

[Barsel]

I never thought to look in the dictionary! Have just looked now and it says 'wend one's way'(travel slowly, leave) so I guess in last night's thread it meant making your way to bed.It doesn't say where this word comes from though and I wondered if it's used in certain parts of the country more than other parts?

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unsure if it is classified as archaic, but I would expect to find it more in poetry that day-to-day conversation.

It is also the name of a wood where one can meet an angry elf mage ;-)

[magicmick]

In Scotland you could wend up the Wynd :)

[maggiebee]

You beat me to it magicmick! Wend/wending are words I use regularly, so maybe more Scottish? I often wend my weary way up to bed after a hard day.

[gness]

Morning, Barsel......I use wend/wending often.....usually when I'm going to bed after a nightcap, and at my age I can do no more than slowly wend my way upstairs... ;-)

[Captain2]

From Gray's 'Elegy written in a country churchyard'

"The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward wends his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me."

[Barsel]

Morning gness, I'm glad you have seen this because you and Mamyalynne used it last night so I knew you would know what it meant but I wondered if it is local dialect as I have never heard it used here in Manchester. Mind you, that doesn't mean it isn't used here, just that I've never heard it.

[gness]

Maybe the Irish and Scots...as Maggie suggests...use it more....I spent years in Corby so there are words I use that are peculiar to that area.....x

My daughter is tickled by the use of the word...avail...in Ireland....yet it's little used in the same context here...x

[Elina]

I did wonder myself Barsel!
I wnder too ... if Mike is 'magic' ;0?

[janbee]

Wend and Wending have always been in my vocabulary. Maybe it's because I'm Scottish but I don't think so. I don't think it's a particularly Scottish word like "scunner" and "swithering." Wend is often found in old poetry.

[Barsel]

Elina Mike is definitely magic ( as in Channing Tatum,) magicmick......not so much. :-)

[BlackadderV]

As Captain2 says, it is often used in a semi-humorous way with reference to Gray's Elegy.

[jno]

one old past tense of wend was "went" and somehow this has replaced the past tense of "go". But it still has another past tense, "wended", which specifically means going slowly or in a lesiurely way.

[Barsel]

"scunner" and "swithering. goodness me janbee, have definitely never heard of those. Hope it's nothing rude :-)

[Barsel]

Thanks to all for your input, will call back later to see if you have some more unusual words for me. x

[BlackadderV]

Widdershins (means anti-clockwise).