"W" Word Origins

Wingate

Old English

From Old English wind (“wind”) + ġeat (“gate”).

wingdog

Origin

From wing + dog, by analogy with wingman.

winged

Middle English

From Middle English winged, wenged (“having wings”), past participle of wingen, from the noun winge, wenge.

winger

Origin

From wing + the agent suffix -er.

winggirl

Origin

From wing + girl, modelled off of earlier wingman.

wingman

Origin

From wing (a formation in flight) + man.

wingnut

Origin

From wing + nut. The political sense is a shortening of "right-wing nut".

wingspan

Origin

From wing + span.

wingspread

Origin

From wing + spread.

wingwoman

Origin

From wing + woman, modelled on earlier wingman.

Winifred

Old English

From the Old English name Winfriþ, itself adapted from the Welsh name Gwenfrewi.

wininess

Origin

From winy + -ness.

wink

Old English

From Old English wincian, "to close the eyes, blink, or make a sign," going back to a Proto-Germanic root shared with words meaning to bend or bow.

winker

Origin

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

winkle

Origin

Shortened from "periwinkle," the name of the small edible sea snail.

winkler

Origin

From "winkle" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning "one who does."

winky

Origin

From wink plus the informal suffix -y.

Winn

Origin

English and Welsh surname, spelling variant of Wynn and Gwynn.

Winnebago

Origin

From an Ojibwe word for the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) people, referring to the murky water of Lake Winnipeg where they were once encountered.

winner

Middle English

From Middle English wynnere, built from win plus the agent suffix -er.

Winnie

Origin

Formed as an affectionate short form of longer given names, using the familiar "-ie" ending.

winning

Origin

Scottish altered form of Finan.

winninger

Origin

From winning + -er. Compare winningest.

winningest

Origin

From winning + -est.

Winnipeg

Origin

From the Western Cree "wi-nipe-k," meaning "murky water."

winnow

Origin

From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian (“to winnow, fan, ventilate”), from Proto-West Germanic *windwōn, from Proto-Germanic *windwōną, *winþijaną (“to throw about, winnow”), from Proto-Indo-European *wē- (“to winnow, thresh”). Cognate with West Frisian wynje (“to winnow”), dialectal Dutch winden, winnen (“to winnow”), Middle High German winden (“to winnow”), Icelandic vinsa (“to pick out, weed”), Latin vannus (“a winnowing basket”). See fan, van.

wino

Origin

From wine plus the informal suffix -o, which marks a person defined by that trait (compare "weirdo").

Winona

Origin

From Dakota winúŋna (“firstborn daughter”). While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers. John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (“female”) + no (“first”) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of Proto-Siouan *rǫ/*nǫ (“one”). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą (“one”) instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (“woman”).

winsome

Origin

Inherited from Middle English wynsom, winsom, winsome, winsum, wunsum (“beautiful; agreeable, gracious, pleasant; generous; of situations: favourable, propitious”), from Old English wynsum (“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam (“joyful”). By surface analysis, winne (“delight, joy, pleasure”) + -some.

Winston

Old English

From Old English personal name Wine, in the genitive singular case Wines + tūn (“farm, village”).

Winstone

Origin

From the Old English personal name Wynna + stān (“stone”).

winter

Old English

From Old English winter, from a Proto-Germanic root shared with Dutch winter and German Winter.

winterbourne

Origin

From Old English Winterburna < winter + burna (“stream”), 'the stream that flows in winter'.

wintergreen

Origin

From winter plus green, describing the plant's evergreen leaves.

winterhouse

Origin

From Middle English winter-hous, from Old English winterhūs, equivalent to winter + house. Compare Dutch winterhuis, German Winterhaus.

winters

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

wintertime

Origin

From winter plus time.

Winthrop

Origin

From wines (“friend's”) + þorp (“village”).

Winton

Origin

From either the Old English personal name Wine, which is a byname from wine (“friend”), or winn (“pasture”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

wintry

Origin

From winter + -y; compare Old English wintriġ (a parallel formation).

winy

Origin

From Middle English wyny; equivalent to wine + -y.

WIP

English

An initialism of work in progress.

wipe

Old English

From Old English wīpian, "to wipe or cleanse," from a Proto-Germanic root related to twisting or winding motion.

wiper

Origin

From wipe plus the agent suffix -er.

wire

Old English

From Old English wīr, "metal thread," from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to twist or turn."

wired

Origin

From wire plus the adjective-forming suffix -ed.

wireless

Origin

Formed from wire plus the suffix -less, originally describing early radio technology that sent signals without a physical wire connection.

wireline

Origin

From wire + line.