wish

English Online Dictionary. What means wish‎? What does wish mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English wisshen, wischen, wüschen, from Old English wȳsċan (“to wish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunskijan, from Proto-Germanic *wunskijaną (“to wish”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to wish, love”).

Cognate with Scots wis (“to wish”), Saterland Frisian wonskje (“to wish”), West Frisian winskje (“to wish”), Dutch wensen (“to wish”), German wünschen (“to wish”), Danish ønske (“to wish”), Icelandic æskja, óska (“to wish”), Latin Venus, veneror (“venerate, honour, love”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭsh, IPA^(key): /wɪʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɪʃ
• Homophone: whish (wine–whine merger)

Noun

wish (plural wishes)

1. A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen.

   have a wish

   make someone's wish come true
2. An expression of such a desire, often connected with ideas of magic and supernatural power.

   make a wish
3. The thing desired or longed for.
4. (Sussex) A water meadow.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• precatory
• velleity

Verb

wish (third-person singular simple present wishes, present participle wishing, simple past and past participle wished)

1. (transitive) To desire; to want.
2. (transitive, now rare) To hope (+ object clause with may or in present subjunctive).
   • 1808, Jane Austen, letter, 1 October:

     She hears that Miss Bigg is to be married in a fortnight. I wish it may be so.

3. (intransitive, followed by for) To hope (for a particular outcome), even if that outcome is unlikely to occur or cannot occur.

4. (ditransitive) To bestow (a thought or gesture) towards (someone or something).
5. (intransitive, followed by to and an infinitive) To request or desire to do an activity.
6. (transitive) To recommend; to seek confidence or favour on behalf of.

Usage notes

• In sense 5, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “wish”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “wish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ, from Proto-West Germanic *fisk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɪʃ/

Noun

wish

1. fish

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