Wepynge

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of the act of crying and shedding tears from grief, pain or sorrow
2. Old English-style form meaning the shedding of tears while sobbing or lamenting
3. Middle English term for crying out in sorrow, with tears falling from the eyes

Etymology: "Wepynge" is a Middle English form of the verb "weep," which came from Old English "wēpan," a word meaning to cry out or lament, with no necessary link to tears. The sense of shedding tears gradually narrowed the older meaning of vocal lamentation, so that "wepynge" in Chaucer's time could describe both the act of sobbing and the sorrowful cry itself. The "-ynge" ending is the Middle English suffix that turned a verb into a verbal noun or participle, the ancestor of the modern "-ing." Spellings varied widely in this period, since scribes had no standard orthography, and "wepynge" appears alongside forms like "wepinge" and "wepyng" in manuscripts of the late 14th and 15th centuries.