Other forms: waned, waning, wanes
To wane is to grow smaller or weaker after a peak. Interest waned, the moon wanes, waning influence.
It is always after a high point, which is what distinguishes it from simply falling. The moon waxes and wanes, and a waning moon is lit on the left in the northern hemisphere. Note that the Old English word meant a lack or shortage, and wan, meaning pale, is probably related.
1verbwaneTo grow smaller or weaker after a peak.
“His interest in the guitar waned after a few months of lessons.”
wane is a diminishing.
Old English wana means a lack or shortage. Want and wanting come from the same lack.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁weh₂- — to leave, abandon; empty, deserted
Proto-Germanic
*wanô
Proto-West Germanic
*wanō
Old English
wana — defect, shortage
Middle English
wane
English, today
wane
From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic wanō, from Proto-Germanic wanô, from Proto-Indo-European h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”). 2 See also a doublet of wan- and want and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) (> Danish - prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (“missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (“empty”), Old Saxon - and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). a doublet of vain, a doublet of vaunt, a doublet of vaniloquent, a doublet of vast, a doublet of vacuum, a doublet of vacant, a doublet of vacate, which are Latin --derived, via the PIE root.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs