† wedenonfa' Sc. Obs.
Forms: 6 wedonynpha (vedumfa), 8 wytenon-fa, 9 weidinonfa.
[f. OE. wéden- (in wéden-heort, -séoc) mad + onfa', onfall. Cf. widdendream.]
Ague (in later use spec. puerperal ague, weed n.3), or a fit of this.
| c 1500 Rowlis Cursing 57 in Bannatyne MS. (Hunter. Club) 300 The worme, the wareit wedonynpha [Maitl. MS. vedumfa], Rumbursin, ripplis, or bellythra[w]. 1597 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials (Bannatyne Club) II. 27 Item, for hailling of women of the Wedonynpha [by sorcery]. 1755 R. Forbes Ajax. etc. Jrnl. to Portsmouth 33, I wis fley'd that she had taen the wytenon-fa,..far she shuddered a' like a klippert in a cauld day. 1808 Jamieson, Wedonypha... This [see quot. 1755] is rendered ‘trembling, chattering’. But it is the term generally used in the North, to express that disease peculiar to women, commonly called a weid; weidinonfa. Ang[us]. |