"W" Word Origins

Whitmore

Old English

From Old English hwīt (“white”) + mōr (“moor”).

Whitney

Old English

From Old English hwītan, dative of hwīt (“white”) + īeġ (“island”), "white island".

Whittier

Origin

From whityer (“a whiter, whitester”, occupational name).

whittle

Old English

From an old form of thwitel, "a large knife," itself from an Old English verb meaning "to cut or strike down" — the same root as the rarer word thwite.

Whitworth

Old English

From Old English hwīt (“white”) + worð (“enclosure”).

whiz

Origin

An imitative word mimicking the hissing sound of something moving fast through the air; the "skilled person" sense likely grew out of the related phrase "whiz kid."

who

Old English

From Old English hwā, part of the same ancient family of question-words as what, when, and where, going back to a shared Proto-Indo-European root.

whoa

Origin

Evolved through a chain of older spoken forms — wo, woa — ultimately tracing back to the same root as the word who, used as a call to halt an animal.

whole

Old English

From Old English hāl, meaning "healthy, unhurt, complete" — the same root behind heal, health, and holy. The odd silent "w" was added in spelling centuries later, partly to keep "whole" visually distinct from "hole."

wholehearted

Origin

From whole + hearted. First appears before 1628 in the publications of John Preston, a clergyman in the Church of England.

wholeheartedly

Origin

Formed from wholehearted plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

wholemeal

Origin

From whole + meal.

wholeness

Origin

From Middle English holnesse, holnes, from Old English hālnes (“wholeness”), equivalent to whole + -ness.

wholesale

Origin

From whole plus sale — literally "selling as a whole" (in bulk) rather than piece by piece.

wholesaler

Origin

From wholesale + -er.

wholesome

Origin

From an earlier form holesome, built from whole (in the old sense of "healthy") plus the suffix -some.

wholesomeness

Origin

From Middle English holsumnesse, equivalent to wholesome + -ness.

wholly

Middle English

From Middle English holly/holliche, built on whole plus -ly.

whom

Old English

From Old English hwām, the dative case of hwā ("who").

whomever

Origin

Formed from whom plus ever, mirroring the whoever/whomever pair the way who/whom works.

whomperjawed

Origin

Ealiest known use is from 1942 (see quotations), and it was first mentioned in 1931. Possibly from an alteration of earlier whopperjawed, wopperjawed, wapper-jawed, ultimately related to wapper jaw (“a projecting underjaw”) (1825).

whoop

Old French

Traces back through Middle English forms like whopen and houpen, partly from an Old French word meaning "to shout" and partly from an Old English word for crying or wailing.

whooped

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

whoopee cushion

English

From whoopee, an exclamation of boisterous delight, and cushion; the product was sold under this name from the early twentieth century.

whoops

Origin

An invented, sound-based word imitating the little gasp people make after a slip-up.

whoosh

Origin

An invented word that simply imitates the rushing sound of fast movement.

whooshing

Origin

The -ing form of whoosh, used as a noun for the ongoing sound or action.

whop

Origin

From Middle English whappen, a variant of wappen (“to strike; fling; shoot; stun”), probably of imitative origin. Compare Old Norse vappa (“to waddle”).

whopper

Origin

From the older verb whop, meaning to strike hard, plus the suffix -er.

whopperjawed

Origin

Earliest known use is from 1854 (see quotations).

whopping

Origin

From the verb whop (to strike or beat) plus -ing, originally suggesting something that hits hard by its sheer size.

whore

Latin

From Old English hōre, going back to a very old Indo-European root meaning "dear" or "desired" — the same root that gives Latin carus ("dear") and the English word care.

whorehouse

Middle English

From Middle English hore + hous, a straightforward compound of whore and house.

whoring

Origin

The -ing form of the verb whore.

whorl

Origin

From alteration of whirl (verb).

whose

Old English

From Old English hwæs, the possessive form of who, going back to Proto-Germanic *hwaz.

whosiewhatsit

Origin

A concatenation of the phrases "Who's he? What's it?"

whosit

Origin

From who's it?

whosoever

Middle English

From Middle English whosoever, literally who + so + ever, built the same way as whatsoever and howsoever.

whuffo

Origin

Contraction of what for.

whup

Origin

A regional variant spelling of whip.

why

Old English

From Old English hwȳ, ultimately from the same ancient root as who and what.

Whyte

Origin

From whyte (“white”). Uncertain semantics.

wi

Origin

A dialectal variant of "we"/"with," shaped by regional pronunciation.

Wi-Fi

English

A brand name adopted by the industry group that certifies compatible wireless equipment. It is a coined trade name rather than an abbreviation, though it plays on the older term hi-fi.

Wiccan

Origin

From Wicca plus the adjective/noun suffix -an.

Wichita

Origin

Uncertain origin, likely from a Muscogee (Creek) phrase meaning "red water", referring to a river.

wick

Old English

From Old English wēoce, going back to a West Germanic root for a bundle of flax used to make a candle wick.