[ WIZ-ən ]
Part of speech: verb
Origin: Old English, ninth century
To wither; to become, or make, lean and wrinkled by shrinkage, as from age or illness.
Examples of Wizen in a sentence
" We left the cabin in good shape, but four undisturbed winters gave it plenty of time to wizen. "
" Sam’s features will wizen as he gets older, but he believes wrinkles give people character. "
Popularity Over Time
“Wizen” appeared in Old English as “wisnian,” from the proto-Germanic “wesaną,” meaning “to consume.”
Did you Know?
The process of “wizening” is often used to describe changes to people’s features that occur with age and exposure to sun and air. However, wizening fruits and vegetables has been an important means of preservation since at least 1500 BCE. Some of the same factors that wizen a person’s appearance — the sun and the wind — were used to wizen vegetables for preservation in the Mesopotamian era. Today’s sun-dried tomatoes are prepared in ways that aren’t dramatically different from the ways Mesopotamians made sun-dried figs and dates 3,500 years ago.