wield

• enPR: wēld, IPA^(key): /wiːld/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːld
• Homophones: wealed, Weald, weald; wheeled (wine–whine merger)

From Middle English wēlden, which combines forms from two closely related verbs: Old English wealdan (“to control, rule”) (strong class 7) and Old English wieldan (“to control, subdue”) (weak). Both verbs ultimately derive from Proto-West Germanic *waldan, from Proto-Germanic *waldaną (“to rule”).

The reason for the merger was that in Middle English the -d in the stem made it hard to distinguish between strong and weak forms in the past tense.^[1]

wield (third-person singular simple present wields, present participle wielding, simple past and past participle wielded)

1. (obsolete) To command, rule over; to possess or own.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum 7”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     There was never kyng sauff myselff that welded evir such knyghtes.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

     There was never a king other than myself who ever commanded such knights.
2. (obsolete) To control, to guide or manage.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     With such his chearefull speaches he doth wield / Her mind so well, that to his will she bends […].

3. (obsolete) To carry out, to bring about.
   • a. 1513, Virgil, “VIII, prologue”, in Gawin Douglas [i.e., Gavin Douglas], transl., edited by [George Dundas], The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse (Bannatyne Club, Publications; 64, no. 1), volume I, Edinburgh: T. Constable, printer, published 1839, →OCLC, page 448, line 1:

     All is weill done, God wate, weild he hys will.

4. To handle with skill and ease, especially a weapon or tool.
5. To exercise (authority or influence) effectively.

• bewield
• wieldsome
• wieldy

From Middle English welde, from Old English *wield, ġewield (“power, control, dominion”), from Proto-West Germanic *waldi, from Proto-Germanic *waldiz (“power, might, control”).

• welde, weild, weelde (obsolete)

wield (countable and uncountable, plural wields)

1. Rule, command; power, control, wielding.
   • 1872, George Francis Savage-Armstrong, The tragedy of Israel, volume 2, page 64:

     What boots it if I beat the heathen home,
     And fold the mountains in my wield, and fire […]

   • 1887, Richard Wagner, Siegfried:

     […] telling him of the treasures concealed in the cave, of the mysterious ring and tarnhelmet, possessing which he can hold the wield of the world.

   • 1968, John Allen, Masters of British Drama, page 32:

     All wealth in my wield is, I know by my wit […]

   • 2019, Lele Iturrioz, Summer:

     “Trust me, I will make them listen,” he hissed and for the first time, he used his wield fallaciously, because instead of giving life, he absorbed it from the tree.

• dwile, Wilde, wilde, wiled

wield (masculine wielden, feminine, plural or definite wielde)

1. alternative spelling of wíeld

From Old English wieldan (“to control”), a derivative of wealdan (“to govern”), from Proto-West Germanic *waldan. Cognate with German walten, Swedish vålla.

• IPA^(key): /wiːld/

wield

1. To control, to guide or manage.