wax and wane

English

Etymology

Literally, “grow and shrink”. Compare wax with the German cognate wachsen (“to grow”). Originally (ca. 14th century) used referring to the phases of the Moon.

Folk etymology has occasionally mistakenly presumed the phrase to be a reference to candles, under the notion that they are produced by applying wax to a wick and then begin to wane once they are lit.

Verb

wax and wane (third-person singular simple present waxes and wanes, present participle waxing and waning, simple past and past participle waxed and waned)

  1. To progress cyclically through various phases, such as growth and senescence.
  2. To alternate; to increase and diminish in turn.
    The manifestation of such philosophy seemed to wax and wane, being the most common one time, but virtually without followers at another, apparently disappearing.

Synonyms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.