Wisan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic term meaning to guide or lead a person along a path or toward a destination
2. An obsolete Old English verb for directing someone along a route or showing them the way
3. Old word for leading or conducting another person by showing them where to go

Etymology: Old English "wisan" meant "to become" or "to turn into," and it survives today only in the scraps of a few archaic phrases. Its best-known relative is "was," the past tense of "be," which English borrowed from the same family of forms. The verb itself is recorded in Old English texts from before the year 1000, and it belonged to a small group of verbs that changed their vowels to mark tense, like "sing" and "sang." The verb faded from ordinary speech over the following centuries, leaving only traces such as the reflexive "to wise up" in its modern slang sense, which is a much later development. The Old English form also sits behind the verb "wax" in the sense of growing or becoming, a pairing that shows how closely related these verbs once were.