weasand

Alternative forms

• weazand
• wezzen, wizen, wizzen, wosen (dialectal)
• wesand, wessand, wezand (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English wesand, wesande, from Old English wǣsend, wāsend (“weasand, windpipe, gullet”), from Proto-Germanic *waisundiz (“windpipe, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to flow, run”). Cognate with Old Frisian wāsende, Old Saxon wāsendi, wāsande (“weasand”), Old High German weisant (“windpipe”), Middle High German weisant (“windpipe”), Bavarian Waisel, Wasel, Wasling (“the gullet of ruminating animals”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiːzənd/

Noun

weasand (plural weasands)

1. The oesophagus; the windpipe; the trachea.
   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 42,

     “By Heaven, and all saints in it, better food hath not passed my weasand for three livelong days, and by God’s providence it is that I am now here to tell it.”

2. The throat in general.
   • 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love Life,

     ‘Which fellows?’ Very loud now, but a tightening in her weasand.

Anagrams

• Sandawe