wake
v.
"to become awake," a Middle English merger of Old English wacan "to become awake, arise, be born, originate," and Old English wacian "to be or remain awake," both from Proto-Germanic *waken (cognates: Old Saxon wakon, Old Norse vaka, Danish vaage, Old Frisian waka, Dutch waken, Old High German wahhen, German wachen "to be awake," Gothic wakan "to watch"), from PIE root *weg- (2) "to be strong, be lively" (cognates: Sanskrit vajah "force, strength; swiftness, speed," vajayati "drives on;" Latin vigil "watchful, awake," vigere "be lively, thrive," velox "fast, lively," vegere "to enliven;" vigil "awake, wakeful," vigor "liveliness, activity"). Causative sense "to rouse from sleep" is attested from c.1300. Related: Waked; waking.
n.
1
"track left by a moving ship," 1540s, perhaps from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch wake "hole in the ice," from Old Norse vök, vaka "hole in the ice," from Proto-Germanic *wakwo. The sense perhaps evolved via "track made by a vessel through ice." Perhaps the English word is directly from Scandinavian. Figurative use (such as in the wake of "following close behind") is recorded from 1806.
2
"state of wakefulness," Old English -wacu (in nihtwacu "night watch"), related to watch, n.; and partly from Old Norse vaka "vigil, eve before a feast," related to vaka "be awake" (cognates: Old High German wahta "watch, vigil," Middle Dutch wachten "to watch, guard;" see wake, v.). Meaning "a sitting up at night with a corpse" is attested from early 15c. (the verb in this sense is recorded from mid-13c.; as a noun lichwake is from late 14c.). The custom largely survived as an Irish activity. Wakeman (c.1200), which survives as a surname, was Middle English for "watchman."