Origin and history of went

went(v.)

past tense of go; originally a past tense and past participle of wend (v.), as sent from send.

The past tense forms of wend were wende, wended, but variants wente, went developed from c. 1200 as part of a Middle English pattern in which the -d of the past tense and past participle becomes -t after -t-, -p-, -s-, -f-, in some cases -l- and -n-. Compare keep/kept, leave/left, gird/girt, build/built, feel/felt, dwell/dwelt, Middle English kissen/kiste, etc.

Went began to replace older past tenses of go in Middle English. By c. 1500 they were fully employed in that function, and wend retained the past tense form wended.

Entries linking to went

go(v.)

Old English gan "to advance, walk; depart, go away; happen, take place; conquer; observe, practice, exercise," from West Germanic *gaian (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian gan, Middle Dutch gaen, Dutch gaan, Old High German gan, German gehen), from PIE root *ghē- "to release, let go; be released" (source also of Sanskrit jihite "goes away," Greek kikhano "I reach, meet with"), but there does not seem to be general agreement on a list of cognates.

A defective verb throughout its recorded history; the Old English past tense was eode, a word of uncertain origin but evidently once a different verb (perhaps connected to Gothic iddja); it was replaced 1400s by went, past tense of wenden "to direct one's way" (see wend). In northern England and Scotland, however, eode tended to be replaced by gaed, a construction based on go. In modern English, only be and go take their past tenses from entirely different verbs.

The word in its various forms and combinations takes up 45 columns of close print in the OED. Meaning "cease to exist" is from c. 1200; that of "to appear" (with reference to dress, appearance, etc.) is from late 14c.; that of "to be sold" is from early 15c. Meaning "to be known" (with by) is from 1590s; that of "pass into another condition or state" is from 1580s. From c. 1600 as "to wager," hence also "to stand treat," and to go (someone) better in wagering (1864). Meaning "say" emerged 1960s in teen slang. Colloquial meaning "urinate or defecate" attested by 1926, euphemistic (compare Old English gong "a privy," literally "a going").

To go back on "prove faithless to" is from 1859; to go under in the figurative sense "to fail" is from 1849. To go places "be successful" is by 1934.

wend(v.)

"to take one's course or way, proceed, go," Old English wendan "to turn, make a turn; direct, go; convert, translate," from Proto-Germanic *wanda- (source also of Old Saxon wendian, Old Norse venda, Swedish vända, Old Frisian wenda, Dutch wenden, German wenden, Gothic wandjan "to turn"), causative of PIE *wendh- "to turn, wind, weave" (see wind (v.1)).

It survives in wend one's way (early 14c.) and in hijacked past tense form went. It is related to wander. Very common in Middle English, which also had awend, biwend, miswend, overwend, etc. A wendling was a "vagabond."