Wend and Wind

A reader questions the use of wind (rhymes with kind) in the following notation on the website of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA):

After expediting your arrival and clearing you to the ramp, ATC has one last function. They will fill out a mandatory occurrence report (MOR), which will wind its way to a flight standards district office (FSDO) where it will be assigned to an inspector.

Says the reader,

I had always thought, and still believe, that the correct word is “wend,” not “wind,” although the former does imply a winding course. Please comment.

Both verbs, to wend and to wind, have been with us since Old English times:

wendan verb: to turn, direct.

windan verb: to plait, curl, twist

Wend has been used with different meanings of turn, such as “to translate/turn a text from one language to another,” but it has retained the connotation of the kind of turning involved in travel or the movement of a river.

In Old English, wind had additional meanings such as whirl, brandish, swing, fly, leap, etc. The word is frequently seen in lively descriptions of Old English battle scenes. Its most common use now is to convey the idea of twisting.

As we’re discussing wend and wind, I’ll mention a similar verb form, went.

Like wend and wind, the verb go existed in Old English. Its past tense was eode. The form went belonged to the verb wendan. Speakers tended to mix up the past of wend with the past of go. In time, eode was replaced by went as the simple past of go. The past of wend became wended. The original past participle form of go (gan) remains with us as gone.

In modern usage, wend is used chiefly in the sense of making one’s way, especially in an unhurried manner by an indirect route. It’s used literally and figuratively. Here are examples of recent usage:

This was a four-month trek that began in London and wended its way through Central Europe and on to the Middle East. 

We adjourned soon after the first ballet, and wended our way back to the restaurant, where supper was already awaiting us.

Just before the troops arrived, a federal judge blocked key components of SB 1070 from going into effect as scheduled, and the case seems sure to wend its way ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even if you don’t live near the sea, much of the run-off from your garden ends up down the drain, which wends its way down to the sea eventually.

Wind, with its past tense wound, is used in a similar way to describe a convoluted and slow course of movement, as in these examples:

Mules and donkeys strung together in groups of five wound their way down the mountain toward the river. 

A bill is currently winding its way through the U.S. Congress to give Europeans the right to legal redress.

The case eventually wound its way to the Supreme Court where Ginzburg lost on a 5-4 decision in 1966, ultimately serving eight months in prison.

I saw their gaunt figures wind down the valley, and watched them till they disappeared in the distance. 

The Awash River winds down from the mountains through deep gorges to the plain.

My answer to the reader’s question is that either wind or wend works in the context of a report making its slow way to the appropriate office.

I’d be hard-pressed to formulate a rule for when to use wend and when to use wind. I think that if I wished to emphasize the leisureliness and intentionality of the movement, I’d choose wend. To emphasize sinuousness and obstruction, I’d choose wind.