hwanon
Old English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *hwananā, with Proto-Germanic *-anē.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adverb
[edit]hwanon
- where from, whence
- Hwanon hæfst þū þone hætt?
- Where did you get that hat?
- Sē wind blǣwþ þǣr hē wile, and þū ġehīerst his swēġ, ac þū nāst hwanon hē cymþ ne hwæder hē gǣþ.
- The wind blows where it wants, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.
- c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 19:9
- Hwanon eart þū?
- Where are you from?
- c. 992, Ælfric, "On the Beginning of Creation"
- Nu þencð menig man and smeað hwanon deofol come; þonne wite he þæt God gesceop to mæran engle þone þe nu is deofol: ac God ne gesceop hine na to deofle; ac þaða he wæs mid ealle fordón and forscyldgod þurh þa miclan up-ahefednysse and wiðerweardnysse, þa wearð he to deofle awend, seðe ǣr wæs mære engel geworht.
- Now many a man will think and inquire, whence the devil came? be it, therefore, known to him that God created as a great angel him who is now the devil: but God did not create him as the devil: but when he was wholly fordone and guilty towards God, through his great haughtiness and enmity, then became he changed to the devil, who before was created a great angel.
- c. 992, Ælfric, "On the Beginning of Creation"
- Nu smeagiað sume men hwanon him come sawul?
- Now some men will inquire, whence came his soul?
- how (not the general meaning of "in which way", but meaning "from which source" or "from where")
- Hwanon sċeal iċ witan?
- How should I know?