weasand

Meanings

nounweasand (plural weasands)

plural weasands · alternative weazand · alternative dialectal wassin · alternative dialectal wezzen · alternative dialectal wizen · alternative dialectal wizzen · alternative dialectal wosen · alternative obsolete weazon · alternative obsolete wesan · alternative obsolete wessand · alternative obsolete wezand · alternative obsolete wezon

dialectalThe oesophagus; the gullet.
By Heaven, and all saints in it, better food hath not passed my weasand for three livelong days, and by God’s providence it is that I am now here to tell it.
1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XLII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC
dialectalThe throat or windpipe.
[…] Or cut his vvezand vvith thy knife.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12
5 more examples
[A]lthough the vveazon, throtle and tongue [of birds] be the inſtruments of voice, and by their agitations doe chiefly concurre unto theſe delightfull modulations, yet cannot vve aſſigne the cauſe unto any particular formation; […]
1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Wish of Philoxenus [of Leucas]”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 7th book, page 368
For at the Throat there are tvvo cavities or conducting parts: the one the Oeſophagus or Gullet, ſeated next the ſpine, a part official unto nutrition, and vvhereby the aliment both vvet and dry is conveied unto the ſtomack; the other (by vvhich tis conceived the Drink doth paſs) is the vveazon, rough artery, or vvind-pipe, a part inſervient to voice and reſpiration; for thereby the air deſcendeth into the lungs, and is communicated unto the heart […]
1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
He Fell: The Shaft [of the arrow] that ſlightly vvas impreſs’d, / Novv from his heavy Fall vvith vveight increas’d, / Drove through his Neck, aſlant, he ſpurns the Ground; / And the Soul iſſues through the VVeazon’s VVound.
1700, [John] Dryden, “The Twelfth Book of Ovid his Metamorphoses, Wholly Translated”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 447
Rat. / I’ll slily seize and / Let blood from her weasand,— / Creeping through crevice, and chink, and cranny, / With my snaky tail, and my sides so scranny.
1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts
They're both so engrossed in this that they don't notice my landlady, who comes rushing out to learn what's going on. / "Why," her son explains, "he grabbed me by the weasand, it took me a long time to get my wind back."
1890, Knut Hamsen, Sult (Hunger), Part Four, at p.181 (Canongate Books Ltd. 2016 paperback edition), Sverre Lyngstad translation

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

oesophagus

Origin

Proto-Indo-European*weys-“to flow, run”
Proto-West Germanic*waisund
Old English*wǣsend
Middle Englishwesand
Englishweasand

Inherited from Middle English wesand, wesande, wesaunt, from Old English *wǣsend, wāsend (“weasand, windpipe, gullet”), from Proto-West Germanic *waisund, *waisundu (“windpipe, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to flow, run”). Cognate with Old Frisian wāsande (“weasand”), Old Saxon wāsendi, Old High German weisant (“windpipe”), Middle High German weisant (“windpipe”), Bavarian Waisel, Wasel, Wasling (“the gullet of ruminating animals”), Alemannic German Weisel (“esophagus (of an animal)”).