GUIGNON

Hl-luck, period when the stars are against us. Commonly explained from guigner, sp. guinar, to wink, to look askew ; guinon, a wink or sign with the eye. But we have no authority for guigner in the sensé of casting an evil eye, and the word may find a satisfactory origin in OE. wanion, chiefly used in the expression, with a wanion ! exactly synonyroous with the Irish curse, bad luck to you ! « Ha, Clodpate, where art thou i Corne out with a vengeance, corne out with a wanion ! » — OzelPs Rabelais. « Come away, or I will fetch thee with a wanion. » — Pericles. Sir Thomas More writes it waniand, in a participial form, and thus puts us on the track of a complète understanding of the word. It appears to be the présent participle of the OE. wanien, wanye, to wane, applied to the waning of the moon, which is known to have been considered an ill-omened period for the commencement of any undertaking. « Young cattle, » says Bacon « that are brought forth in the full of the moon, are stronger and better than those that are brought forth in the wane. » The waniand then is the waning of the moon, and implicitly an ill-omened period, atime of malign influence. « He would by lykelyhood bind them to carts, and béate t hem, and makethem wed in the waniand»: that is, make them wed under an unlucky star, with the ill omen of a forced marriage. — The french popular form guigne finds its correspondent in the E. wanie, which bears the same relation to wanion as guigne to guignon. « The pope... sent into France Hildebrand, his cardinal chaplain (as meet a mate for such a feat as was in ail Satan's court), and raade him with a wanie to come again coram nobis. » Fox, Eccles. History, in Nares.