won

WUN/wʌn/

As a nounWAHN

Noun pluralwon

4 meanings of won

Practice

1
verb
Simple past and past participle of win.
The senator won her seat after a tense recount.
They have won every match this season.
Note
An irregular form doing double duty: she won and she has won use the same word, so there is no separate participle to learn. Two older uses of win live on in it. Won over describes someone persuaded or befriended, and won through describes a goal reached despite toil. The same spelling also belongs to an unrelated old verb meaning 'to dwell' and to the currency of Korea.
2
nouncountable
The basic unit of money used in Korea, divided into 100 jun in North Korea and 100 jeon in South Korea.
The won weakened against the dollar after the announcement.
Tourists exchange their cash for won at the airport counter.
Note
A name that once meant a round coin: Korean won comes from the Chinese character for 'circle', a reference to the piece of eight. The same character gives yuan and yen, so these three East Asian currencies share one word. The plural is unchanged, so it is a thousand won, never wons, and the symbol ₩ stands for it in prices.
3
USWUN/wʌn/UKWON/wɒn/
verbobsolete
To live or remain in a place; to dwell.
I long'd to leave this wand'ring pilgrimage, / And in my native soil again to won.
1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso
Note
A survival from Old English wunian, the same word as German wohnen and Dutch wonen, which are still everyday verbs for living somewhere. Edward Fairfax still uses it in The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso (1600): 'in my native soil again to won.' It conjugates regularly (wons, wonning, wonned), so it never collides with the past tense of win. Outside deliberate archaism or regional speech, dwell does the job.

Less common meaning

4
USWUN/wʌn/UKWON/wɒn/
verbobsolete
To do something habitually, as a matter of long custom.
Note
A habit sense from the same Old English verb as the old verb for dwelling, where living with something shades into being used to it. It takes a to-infinitive, as in they won to rise early. Like its neighbor, it is archaic or regional. In ordinary prose, was accustomed to or used to says the same thing without sounding like a slip for the past tense of win.

won is a form of win

win, verb: To be the victor in a game, war, election, or other contest, or to bring about such a victory for someone. Full entry

Forms: winwins he/she/itwinning -ing formwon past tense, past participle
Spelling: win → won: irregular (no -ed)

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Origins

Meaning 1

"Won" is the past participle of "win," which comes from the Old English word "winnan."

Meanings 3–4

This sense comes from Old English "wunian," from Proto-Germanic "*wunāną," from the Proto-Indo-European root "*wenh₁-" ("to wish, love"). It is related to Dutch "wonen" and German "wohnen."

Meaning 2

This was borrowed from Korean "won" (원/圓), from Sinitic 圓/圆 ("circle," later "round coin"), referring to the piece of eight. It is a doublet of "yuan" and "yen."