Vein

[David Myer]

Thinking about this word, I wondered about its origins. I did a little research and it seems the etymology beyond Latin is obscure and uncertain. So why is it pronounced vane/vain when instinct tells us that it should be vine - presuming some German origin? And why is it spelt vein? In Latin, vena...

[Slava]

For what it's worth, vain is covered in vainglory.

Vane is from Fane, which meant flag, so I can see how it got to be a weathercock.

As for spelling and pronunciation, well that's a bit beyond my ken.

[bbeeton]

Asking about its pronunciation is a little bit like asking why "chow mein" is spelled that way. What about the pronunciation of "rein" or "reign" (that goes with "deign" and "feign")? And so much for "i before e except after c". English is just weird,

[Slava]

I've sometimes tried to come up with a long sentence for the exceptions to that one. I before E, except after C, and if you're in weird, foreign, society is about all I could ever come up with. At least of things that actually made sense.

[David Myer]

Well Slava, with Barbara's prompting:

I would love to reign over a weird foreign society, but, being feisty, I would first feign to deign before I seized their species in a sufficiently scientific heist.

There's 13 rule-breakers unless you include being - 14!

[Slava]

Good job!