Meaning
A letter of the Old English alphabet, ƿ, borrowed from the futhark and used to represent the sound of w; replaced in Middle English times by the digraph uu, which later developed into the letter w.
Etymology
Origin: Old English
From Middle English wynne, winne, wenne, wunne, wyn, from Old English wynn (“joy, pleasure”) (runes were named using words beginning with their sound), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnju, from Proto-Germanic *wunjō, from Proto-Indo-European *wn̥h₁yeh₂, from *wenh₁- (“desire, wish, love”).
NYT Puzzle Appearances
No published puzzle dates on file for this word yet. It is part of the official NYT Spelling Bee word list for 2023, 2025.