wode

See also: wodę, wódę, and wọde

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wode, from Old English wōd (“mad, raging, enraged, insane, senseless, blasphemous”), from Proto-Germanic *wōdaz (compare Middle Dutch woet > Dutch woede, Old High German wuot > German Wut (“fury”), Old Norse óðr, Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌳𐍃 (wōds, “demonically possessed”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t-ós, from *weh₂t- (“excited, possessed”) (compare Latin vātēs (“seer, prophet”), Old Irish fáith (“seer”), Welsh gwawd (“song”)).

Alternative forms

• wood

Adjective

wode (comparative woder, superlative wodest)

1. (obsolete) Mad, crazy, insane, possessed, rabid, furious, frantic.
   • a. 1588, Jasper Heywood, quoted in James Petite Andews, The History of Great Britain, published 1806

     My hair stode up, I waxed wode, my synewes all did shake / And, as the fury had me vext, my teeth began to quake.

Etymology 2

See woad.

Noun

wode (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of woad

Anagrams

• Dowe, owed

Middle English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwoːd(ə)/

Etymology 1

From Old English wōd, from Proto-West Germanic *wōd, from Proto-Germanic *wōdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂tós.

Noun

wode (uncountable)

1. madness, insanity, an overmastering emotion, rage, fury
   • c. 1400, Laud Troy Book:

     When thei saw hir for wode so wilde Thei did lede hir ... With-oute the toun […] And stoned hir to dethe.

     When they saw her rage so wild, They did lead her ... out the town [...] And stoned her to death.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Dan Michel of Northgate, Ayenbite of Inwyt:

     At cherche kan god […] yelde þe wyttes of þe wode.t

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Verb

wode

1. To be or go mad; be or go out of one's mind; behave wildly; be frenzied; go out of control.
   • c. 1382 (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “Boetius de consolatione Philosophie”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC:

     Vices woden to destroyen men by wounde of thought.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. to be or become furious, enraged.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     Whan I ne may my ladi se, The more I am redy to wraththe […] I wode as doth the wylde Se.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

Conjugation of wode (weak in -ed)

infinitive	(to) woden, wode
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	wode	woded
2nd-person singular	wodest	wodedest
3rd-person singular	wodeth	woded
subjunctive singular	wode
imperative singular		—
plural1	woden, wode	wodeden, wodede
imperative plural	wodeth, wode	—
participles	wodynge, wodende	woded, ywoded

¹Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Adverb

wode

1. frantically
2. ferociously, fiercely
3. intensely, furiously
   • c. 1374–1385 (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The House of Fame”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC:

     Lat us to the peple seme Suche as the world may of us deme That wommen loven us for wod.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. furiously enraged, irate, angry

   He was wod wroth and wold do Thomas ... to deth. — Mirk's Festial: A Collection of Homilies by (Can we date this quote by Johannes Mirkus and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

   When þe wale kyng wist, he wex wode wroth. — (Can we date this quote by Wars of Alexander and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

Adjective

wode

1. mad, insane, possessed, furious, frantic, mentally deranged, of unsound mind, out of one's mind.
2. rabid
3. wild, not tamed

Derived terms

Derived terms

• brain wode (“out of one's mind”)
• waxen wode (“to become mad because of (sth.), be made mad by”)
• woded, wodehedde (“madness, lunacy, mental illness”)
• wodeman (“a madman”)
• woden-drēm (“madness, insane folly”)
• wode sik (“insane, mad”)
• wodewosen (“to run wild, become mad”)

Descendants

• English: wode, wood
• Scots: wod, wode, wud, wude, wuid

References

• “wode”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Middle English Dictionary

Etymology 2

From Old English wudu, from Proto-West Germanic *widu, from Proto-Germanic *widuz; see wood.

Noun

wode

2. wood (material).

Descendants

• English: wood
• Scots: wod, wuid

References

• “wode”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Middle English Dictionary

Verb

wode

1. To hunt.
2. To take to the woods; hide oneself in the woods (also reflexive: ben woded).

Conjugation

Conjugation of wode (weak in -ed)

infinitive	(to) wode, wode
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	wode	woded
2nd-person singular	wodest	wodedest
3rd-person singular	wodeth	woded
subjunctive singular	wode
imperative singular		—
plural1	woden, wode	wodeden, wodede
imperative plural	wodeth, wode	—
participles	wodynge, wodende	woded, ywoded

¹Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Derived terms

• wodeward (“forester”)

References

• “wode”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Middle English Dictionary

Etymology 3

Verb

wode

1. Alternative form of waden

Yola

Verb

wode

1. Alternative form of woode
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 7, page 86:

     Yith w'had any lhuck, oor naame wode b' zung,

     If we had any luck, our name would have been sung

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 11, page 88:

     Wode zar; mot, all arkagh var ee barnaugh-blowe,

     Would serve; but, all eager for the barnagh-stroke,

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 78