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W 

not in the Roman alphabet, but the Modern English sound it represents is close to the devocalized consonant expressed by Roman -U- or -V-. In Old English, this originally was written -uu-, but by 8c. began to be expressed by the runic character wyn (Kentish wen), which looked like this: ƿ (the character is a late addition to the online font set and doesn't display properly on many computers, so it's something like a combination of lower-case -p- and a reversed -y-).

In 11c., Norman scribes introduced -w-, a ligatured doubling of Roman -u- which had been used on the continent for the Germanic "w" sound, and wyn disappeared c. 1300. -W- is not properly a letter in the modern French alphabet, and it is used there only in borrowed foreign words, such as wagon, weekend, Western, whisky, wombat. Charles Mackay ("Extraordinary Popular delusions and the Madness of Crowds") reports that the Scotsman John Law, author of the Mississippi stock swindle of 1720, was known in France as Monsieur Lass "to avoid the ungallic sound, aw."

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was (v.)

Old English wesan, wæs, wæron 1st and 3rd person singular of wesan "to remain," from Proto-Germanic *wesanan (source also of Old Saxon wesan, Old Norse vesa, Old Frisian wesa, Middle Dutch wesen, Dutch wezen, Old High German wesen "being, existence," Gothic wisan "to be"), from PIE root *wes- (3) "remain, abide, live, dwell" (cognates Sanskrit vasati "he dwells, stays;" compare vestal). Wesan was a distinct verb in Old English, but it came to supply the past tense of am. This probably began to develop in Proto-Germanic, because it is also the case in Gothic and Old Norse. See be.

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WAC 

1943, American English, acronym from Women's Army Corps, formed 1943.

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wacke (n.)

rock resembling sandstone, 1803, from German Wacke, from Middle High German wacke "large stone, rock projecting from the surface of the ground," from Old High German wacko, waggo "gravel, pebble, rock rolling in a riverbed," which probably is from Old High German wegan "to move" (from Proto-Germanic *wag- "to move about," from PIE root *wegh- "to go, move"). A miner's word, brought into geology by German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817).

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wack (n.)

"crazy person," 1938, back-formation from wacky. Adjective in slang sense of "worthless, stupid," is attested from late 1990s.

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wacky (adj.)

"crazy, eccentric," 1935, variant of whacky (n.) "fool," late 1800s British slang, probably ultimately from whack "a blow, stroke," from the notion of being whacked on the head one too many times.

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wackjob (n.)

also whackjob, wack job, 1979, "crazy person." From wack (n.) + job (n.) Perhaps on model of earlier nut job (1972) with same meaning.

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wacko (n.)

extended form of wack, by 1971.

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wadding (n.)

"stuffing," 1620s, verbal noun from wad (v.).

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wad (v.)

1570s, "put a wad into," from wad (n.). From 1670s as "form into a wad;" 1759 as "pad or stuff with wadding." Related: Wadded; wadding.

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