The word 'wanton' crops up in several news reports today: wanton damage, wanton violence, wanton criminality, wanton destruction, and so on.
Wanton is an interesting word, because it is more or less the only word used in modern English with the Old English negative prefix wan-, the approximate equivalent of the common modern prefix un-. The '-ton' part of the word is from the past participle of the now obsolete Old English word téon, to train or discipline, so wanton is literally 'undisciplined'. The word 'wanton' was not around in the Old English period, however, appearing only in the Middle English period.
Wan- words around in the Old English period included wansceaft, misfortune, and wanspéd, ill-success. The prefix was most prolific in the north of England and Scotland, and there were, until the 19th century, many more wan- words used in these areas, eg wanchancy (unlucky), wancouth (uncouth), wandought (feeble) and wanweird (misfortune).
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Posted by: Moncler Rockar | December 16, 2011 at 11:40 PM