bayn
(noun) A cause of great distress or annoyance.
Traffic has always been the bane of her morning commute.
Fun Fact
Bane originally meant “killer” or “poison” in Old English—think wolf’s bane, a toxic plant. Over time, it came to mean any source of persistent misery. It’s now often used dramatically or humorously—“My inbox is the bane of my existence.” The word’s tone is flexible: it can be dead serious or a bit tongue-in-cheek.
wend
(verb) To travel in a slow, purposeful, or indirect way.
They wended their way through the hills, stopping to take in every view.
Old English wendan, meaning “to turn” or “go,” originally used to describe physical and metaphorical journeys.
Fun Fact
Wend is one of those elegant, old-fashioned words that shows up in literature and poetic travel writing. It suggests more than just movement—it implies a journey that unfolds intentionally, even if slowly or circuitously. Though rarely used in speech today, you’ll still find it in books or historical dramas, giving a sense of timeless wandering—like “he wended his way through the mist.”