Etymology: In form the word corresponds to Old English *wacu strong feminine, occurring once in nihtwaco night-watch. Compare also the weak feminine forms, Middle Dutch wake (Dutch waak ), Middle Low German wake , Old High German wacha (Middle High German, modern German wache ), wakefulness, watching, watch, Old Norse vaka (Middle Swedish, Swedish vaka , Norwegian voka ) watch, vigil, eve of a feast; related to wake v. In the sense ‘state of wakefulness’, the noun is probably in part a new formation in Middle English on the stem of wake v., on the analogy of sleep verb and noun. In sense 4 adoption < Old Norse is possible; the sense ‘merry-making’ is found in Old Norse and Norwegian; compare Old Norse Jónsvaka, Norwegian Jóns(v)oka St. John's Eve, Midsummer festivities.

Etymology: Not found before the 16th cent., but possibly much older; either directly or mediately < Old Norse (*vaku ) vǫk strong feminine, vaka weak feminine, hole or opening in ice. The Old Norse word was probably applied to the path made for itself by a vessel through ice, and from this use the sense ‘trace or track of a vessel in the water’ may have been developed by Scandinavian navigators in British seas. Sense 5, ‘line of hay’, if it really belongs to the same word, may be a transferred use of the nautical sense.The word is represented in all the Scandinavian dialects, and has been adopted in Dutch, Frisian, and German. The sense ‘track of a vessel’ is found, outside English, only in Norwegian vok (dialect vaak ), North Frisian (Sylt) waak ; the older sense, ‘hole or channel in ice’ (sometimes, ‘a piece of water kept unfrozen by wind or current’) belongs to Middle Swedish vaak , vak , Swedish vak (compare Swedish väcka to cut a hole in ice), Norwegian vok , Danish vaage , West Frisian wek , wjek(ke , Dutch wak neuter, Middle Low German, Low German (whence modern German) wake feminine. The word is commonly supposed to be connected with Old Norse vǫk-r , Dutch wak , moist, damp: see wak adj. This view involves some difficulty, as the Old Norse adjective has the stem vǫkv- , while the noun has genitive vakar , plural vakar , -ir . Connection with wake adj., wake v. seems not impossible: the freeing of the water from ice may have been regarded as an awakening.

Etymology: Perhaps < an African language, but evidently regarded by Jobson as onomatopoeic.

Etymology: ? Aphetic variant of awake adj.

Etymology: Two distinct but synonymous verbs from the same root coalesced in early Middle English: (i) The strong verb Old English (? wæcnan ), wóc , wócon , *wacen . (The present-stem is wanting, unless it be presented by wæcnan : see waken v.) The strong past tense is found only in English; the strong past participle, not recorded in Old English, but found in later periods, occurs in Old Norse vakenn , and as adjective (‘awake’) in Middle Swedish vakin , Swedish, Norwegian vaken , Danish vaagen ; North Frisian vaaken is probably < Scandinavian. (ii) The weak verb Old English wacian , corresponding to Old Frisian wakia , waka (modern West Frisian weitsje , North Frisian waake ), Old High German wahhên , wachên , -ân (Middle High German, modern German wachen ), Old Norse vaka , past tense vakða (Norwegian, Middle Swedish, Swedish vaka , Danish vaage ), Gothic wakan < Germanic *wakǣjan (whence also the Old English doublet wæccan watch v.), or to Old Saxon, Old Low Frankish wakon (Middle Dutch, Dutch, Middle Low German, Low German waken ), Old High German wachôn < Germanic *wakōjan .The Germanic root *wak- ( < *wōk- in Gothic wōkains wakefulness, and, with different sense, in Gothic wōkr-s , Old English wōcor , Old Norse okr growth, increase, usury: see ocker n.¹) represents a pre-Germanic *wag- : *weg- ; compare Latin vegēre to rouse, excite, also intransitive to be lively or active, vigēre to be vigorous, vigil wakeful, Sanskrit vājas neuter vigour; perhaps to be referred to the Indo-European root *aweg- , represented by Latin augēre , Gothic aukan to increase, Old English éacan to grow (see eke v.), and with -s extension by Greek αὐξάνειν to increase, Germanic *wa χs- to grow (see wax v.¹). In Old English the strong verb had probably the sense ‘to become awake’, though this is evidenced only in the compound on-wæcnan , the simple verb being found only in the sense ‘to come into being’, which may either be a figurative use of the sense ‘to awake’, or represent a different application of the original wider sense of the root. The weak verb had the static sense ‘to be or remain awake’. In Middle English the strong and weak forms came to be used indiscriminately in both senses. Out of the sense ‘to become awake’ there was developed a causative sense, ‘to rouse from sleep’, in which the word superseded wecche v. (Old English węccan < Germanic *wakjan). The sense ‘to remain awake, watch’ gave rise to a transitive use = ‘to watch (over)’; but in the modern English period the static sense, both intransitive and transitive, has become almost obsolete, the usual meanings of the word being ‘to become or cause to become awake’.The modern past tense woke /wəʊk/ does not regularly represent the Old English wóc , which would have yielded wook /wʊk/. Apparently the modern woke is a new formation or modification on the analogy of broke , spoke (for the irregularity in the vowel compare stove past tense of stave v.). When this came in is uncertain, for in Middle English and probably in early modern English the spelling woke represents the regular phonetic descendant of the Old English wóc . The past participle waken has always been rare, and now survives only in dialects in adjectival use. From the 17th cent. onwards the forms woke , woken (after broke , broken , spoke , spoken , etc.) have been more or less current for the past participle; woke seems obsolescent in standard use (except in the specific use described at woke adj.² 2), but woken is at least as frequent as waked. No strong forms either of past tense or participle are found in Shakespeare, the Bible of 1611, or Milton's verse.