Etymology Dictionary

WANION,  in the phrase with a wanion.  (E.)   In Shak. Pers. ii. 1. 17; the phr. with a wanion means 'with a curse on you,' or 'with bad luck to you,' or 'to him,' as the case may be.   The word has been explained by Wedgwood, Phil. Soc. Trans. 1873-4, p. 328.   I myself independently obtained the same conclusions, viz. (1) that it stands for waniand, and (2) that waniand was taken to be a sb., instead of a pres. part.   Rich. quotes from Sir T. More:  'He would of lykelyhood bynde them to cartes and beat them, and make theym wed in the waniand,' Works, p. 306; which means, I suppose, he would flog them at the cart's tail (a common expression), and make them marry in the waning moon, i.e. at an unlucky time.   Halliwell gives 'waniand, the wane of the moon,' without any authority; still, it is doubtless right.   β. Waniand is the Northern form of the pres. part. of M.E. wanien, to wane, also used actively in the sense to lessen, deprive (see below).   The confusion of the pres. part. with the sb. in -ing is so common in English that many people cannot parse a word ending in -ing.   Thus in the waniand came to mean 'in the waning,' and with a wanion means with a diminution, detriment, ill luck.   On 'the fatal influence of the waning moon,... general in Scotland,' see Brand's Popular Antiquities, chapter on The Moon.   The Icel. vana, to wane, is commonly transitive, with the senses 'to make to wane, disable, spoil, destroy,' which may have influenced the superstition in the North, though it is doubtless widely spread.   Cf. 'wurreð uppe chirches, oðer wanieð hire rihtes, oðer letteð' = war upon churches, or lessen their rights, or hinder them; O. Eng. Homilies, ed. Morris, ii. 177, l. 6.   See Wane. [†]

ADDENDA

I have since found that the expression in the waniand is much older than the time of More; for Minot writes:  'It was in the waniand [i.e. in an unlucky hour] that thai come there;' Polit. Poems, ed. Wright, i. 87.   Cf. 'when the mone is wanande;' Reliq. Antiq. i. 52.   'Ealle eorðlice lichaman beoð fulran on weaxendum mónan þonne on wanigendum;' all earthly bodies are fuller in the waxing than in the waning moon; Pop. Treatises on Science, ed. T. Wright, p. 15.   And again, in the York Mysteries, p. 319, Pilate says:  'Nowe walkis in the wanyand, and wende youre way wightely.'