väsa

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish hvæsa.

Verb

väsa (present väser, preterite väste, supine väst, imperative väs)

  1. to hiss (especially of a snake)
    En orm ringlade fram till mig och väste
    A snake slithered up to me and hissed
  2. to wheeze
    väsande andning
    wheezing [wheezing / hissing breathing]

Usage notes

  • An "ssss"-like hiss. For more "roar"-like hissing, like from an angry cat, see fräsa.
  • Sounds more sinister as opposed to angry compared to fräsa when used to describe a human voice.
  • Both fräsa and väsa appears to be common for angry swans, perhaps depending on if the sound is perceived as more cat-like or more snake-like.

Conjugation

Conjugation of väsa (weak)
active passive
infinitive väsa väsas
supine väst västs
imperative väs —
imper. plural1 väsen —
present past present past
indicative väser väste väss, väses västes
ind. plural1 väsa väste väsas västes
subjunctive2 väse väste väses västes
present participle väsande
past participle —

1 Archaic. 2 Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

References

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.