Obs. Forms: 1 pl. hwata, 3 hwat, 3–4 quate, 3–5 wat(e, what(e, 5 qwate. [OE. pl. hwata, *hwatan (gen, hwatena), related to hwata augur, hwatung divination.]
1. Divination, augury; ? foreboding.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Lev. xix. 26. Ne eton ʓe blod, ne ne ʓimon hwata ne swefna!
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 11. Warienge, and handselne, and time, and hwate, and fele swilche deueles craftes.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1054. Ȝet sat loth at ðe burȝes gate, After sum geste stod him quake [read quate].
c. 1375. Cursor M., 19567 (Fairf.). Of wate he [sc. Simon Magus] was ful wonder wise.
2. Fortune, destiny, fate, luck.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 105. Þe unbileffulle … Werpeð þat gilt … uppen hwate, and seið, nahte ich no betere wate.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 802. Alas alas þou luþer wate [MS. δ fortune], þat vilest me þus one. Ibid., 8519. Vor gode wate afterward he nadde in none dede.
13[?]. St. Gregory (Vernon MS.), 294. Þis is a child of goode whate.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13681. Þen fortune his fall felli aspies, Vnqwemys his qwate, & þe qwele turnys.
14[?]. MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48, lf. 94 (Halliw.). To bilde he hade gode quate.
b. ? Good fortune, luck.
c. 1330. Florice & Bl. (1857), 14. And be hit erli and be hit late To thi wille thou schalt haue whate.
