Ruminations.
Where does the word "wish" come from?
"Wish" as a verb meaning "to cherish a desire" comes from Old Englishwyscan, meaning the same thing. As a noun meaning "the act of wishing, or what one wishes for" the word appears in the early 1300s. The OED lists 31 different meanings for the word - 8 nouns, 21 verbs, 1 adjective, and 1 interjection, as in the phrase "I wish!" (1989). The noun form acquired the meaning "an expression of desire that others be well, as a farewell greeting" in 1597, while a form with a different derivation meaning "a piece of meadow or flat land liable to be flooded" appears much earlier than that. Obsolete meanings for the verb include "to require" (1600) and "to recommend one person to another" (1612), while an obsolete meaning for the noun is "a malediction;" the verb acquired the meanings "to bewitch" in 1848 and "to impose (something) on (someone)" in 1915. The earliest written use of the noun is in 1390, in the writings of John Gower, poet. Links.NightCafe Image Source