31Oct October 31, 2006 – Wan

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

So I’ve fallen too far behind to keep pushing off more until I can catch up, so I’ll start from today and backfill when possible.

Wan \WAHN\, adjective:
1. Having a pale or sickly hue; pale; pallid.
2. Lacking vitality, as from weariness, illness, or unhappiness; feeble.
3. Lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble.

She was concerned about her grandson’s wan appearance. “So skinny,” she would say in Yiddish, “such a plucked little owl.”
— Herbert G. Goldman, Banjo Eyes

Her pale, pinched lips, sunken eyes and wan, haggard cheeks presented a mournful contrast to her former self.
— Wilkie Collins, Iolani

. . .some wan heroine in a Gothic romance, keening over a faithless lover, trembling before a murderous stalker, falling into the arms of her rescuers.
— Marilyn Stasio, review of Final Jeopardy by Linda Fairstein, New York Times, July 28, 1996

Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day.
— Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Wan is from Old English wann, “gloomy, dark.”

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for wan

Wan should come up with a lot (although I keep thinking of Wide Area Network).

God I love geeks with a camera!