A Word A Day — wend

with Anu Garg

wend

(wend)

verb tr., intr.: To travel along a route.

From Old English wendan.

If you’ve ever wondered why we have the peculiar form “went” as the past tense of the word go (go, went, gone), today’s word is the culprit. “Went” is the archaic past form of “wend”. In current usage, the past form of wend is wended. The word is typically used in the phrase “to wend one’s way”.

“Federal stimulus dollars are starting to wend their way from Washington to Watertown and other communities nationwide.”
Erin Ailworth; A Slice of the Stimulus; The Boston Globe; Apr 29, 2009.

We take our colors, chameleon-like, from each other. -Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)