wed - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

wed

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Wedau.

From Middle English wedden, weddien, from Old English weddian (“to pledge; wed”), from Proto-West Germanic *waddjōn, from Proto-Germanic *wadjōną (“to pledge”), from *wadją (“pledge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge”).

Cognate with Scots wed, wod, wad (“to wed”), Saterland Frisian wädje (“to bet, wager”), West Frisian wedzje (“to bet, wager”), Low German and Dutch wedden (“to bet”), German wetten (“to bet”), Danish vædde (“to bet”), Swedish vädja (“to appeal”), Icelandic veðja (“to bet”); more distantly, to Sanskrit वधू (vadhū́, “bride”). Related also to gage, engage, and wage.

wed (third-person singular simple present weds, present participle wedding, simple past and past participle **wed or wedded)

  1. (transitive) To perform the marriage ceremony for; to join in matrimony.
    The priest wed the couple.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
      Shall live with her.
  2. (transitive) To take as one's spouse.
    She wed her first love.
    • 2017 September 27, David Browne, “Hugh Hefner, 'Playboy' Founder, Dead at 91”, in Rolling Stone:
      In 1989, he wed Playmate Kimberley Conrad, a marriage that ended in 2010. In 2013, he married his younger girlfriend, Crystal Harris, with whom he was still wed at the time of his death.
  3. (intransitive) To take a spouse.
  4. (reciprocal) To take each other as a spouse.
    They will wed in the summer.
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To join or commit to, more or less permanently, as if in marriage.
    I'm not wedded to this proposal; suggest an alternative.
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
      Affliction is enamoured of thy parts, and thou art wedded to calamity.
    • 1664, John Tillotson, “Sermon I. The Wisdom of Being Religious. Job XXVIII. 28.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B. Aylmer, […]; [a]nd W. Rogers, […], published 1696, →OCLC:
      Men are wedded to their lusts.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 39:
      […] When each by turns was guide to each,
      ⁠And Fancy light from Fancy caught,
      ⁠And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought,
      Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech: […]
    • 1962 April, “Death from Natural Causes?”, in Modern Railways, page 218:
      It will be a tragedy if further enterprises of this kind—for example, the one proposed between South Wales, Bristol and the South Coast via Salisbury—are now deferred until they, too, are realised too late to make an impact on a public that is too firmly wedded to the roads to be wooed back to the trains.
    • 2008, Bradley Simpson, Economists with Guns, page 72:
      […] the PPS paper proposed a political doctrine that wedded modernization theory to U.S. support for national security states […]
  6. (figurative, intransitive) To take to oneself and support; to espouse.
  7. (Northern England, Scotland) To wager, stake, bet, place a bet, make a wager.
    I'd wed my head on that.

to perform the marriage ceremony for; to join in matrimony

transitive: to take as one's spouse

intransitive: to take a spouse

reciprocal: to take each other as a spouse

Translations to be checked

wed

  1. inflection of wedden:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

From Middle Dutch wedde, from a byform of Proto-Germanic *wadą, whence wad. Closely related with Middle High German wete, wettin f (“drinking place, shallow pond”). The Dutch appears to require a neuter *wadją (though feminine use is also attested), the High German a feminine īn-stem *wadį̄.

wed n (plural wedden, diminutive wedje n)

  1. ford, shallow river crossing
  2. drinking place for animals

From Proto-Germanic *witaną.

wed

  1. (Föhr-Amrum) to know

wed (plural weds)

  1. alternative form of wad (“pledge, security”)