eggcorn: "wisened"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jun 25, 2006, at 7:50 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

>> From the Dragaera mailing list (discussion of the works of Steven
>> K. Z.
> Brust):
>
>> Or even an older, wisened Dragonlord might hold back and not attack
>> immediately.


see discussion here from last summer.  an observation by stephen
goranson, with a follow-up by me (7 August 2005, "Re: wizened/wisened
eggcorn?").  i'm still not sure what to make of it.  a glance at
googled-up stuff shows fairly frequent uses of "wisen" as an
inchoative or causative derived from "wise" ('become wise' or 'make
wise'), though these usages seem not to have made it into any of the
dictionaries i have to hand.

a fair number of the cites (like mark mandel's above) can be seen as
possibly involving both a 'dried up' *and* a 'made wise' sense of
"wisened".

wisenheimer arnold

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