"W" Word Origins

womaniser

Origin

From womanise + -er.

womanish

Origin

From Middle English wommanyssh. Equivalent to woman + -ish. The verb is from the adjective.

womanizer

Origin

Formed from the verb "womanize" plus the agent suffix -er.

womankind

Origin

From Middle English wommankynde. By surface analysis, woman + -kind.

womanlikeness

Origin

From womanlike + -ness.

womanly

Middle English

From Middle English womanly, from woman plus -ly.

womb

Old English

From Old English wamb, meaning "belly" or "stomach" — the word originally referred to the abdomen generally before narrowing to mean specifically the uterus.

wombat

Origin

Borrowed from Dharug (an Australian Aboriginal language) wumbat.

Women

Middle English

From Middle English wimmen, from Old English wīfmenn (“women”), from wīf (“female”) + menn (“men, persons, human beings”), equivalent to wife + men. Spelling (with o) influenced by the singular; see woman for more.

womenfolk

Origin

A compound of women and folk.

womenkind

Origin

From Middle English wommenkynde. By surface analysis, women + -kind.

wommon

Origin

Respelling to avoid the presence of man in the word.

womon

Origin

From woman; respelled so as not to contain the word man.

womxn

Origin

From women + -x-. Respelled both to avoid containing men (compare English womyn), and to use x (compare English Latinx), intended to convey that the word has a broad scope.

womyn

Origin

From woman and women; respelled so as not to contain the words man or men. Compare myn.

won

Old English

* Past participle of win, from Old English winnan.

wonder

Old English

From Old English wundor, meaning "wonder" or "miracle" — a very old Germanic word found across related languages like Dutch and German (Wunder).

wonderful

Old English

From Old English wundorful, literally "full of wonder" — from wonder plus -ful.

wonderfully

Middle English

From Middle English wonderfully, from wonderful plus -ly.

wonderland

Origin · 1865

A compound of wonder and land, popularized by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

wonderworker

Origin

From wonder + worker.

wonderworking

Origin

From wonder + working.

wondrous

Old English

From Middle English wonders ("wonderful"), reshaped in spelling to match other -ous adjectives; ultimately from Old English wundor, "wonder, miracle."

wone

Origin

From Middle English wone, variant of wane, from Old Norse ván (“hope, expectation”). The senses relating to dwelling-places apparently derive from the sense relating to expectation, i.e. the home as the place one is expected to be; cf. von (“place where one expects to find fish”).

wong

Old English

From Old English wong/wang, meaning "a flat surface or plain," related to Danish vang.

woning

Origin

From Middle English woning, wuning, wunnunge, from Old English wunung (“act of dwelling, living, dwelling, habitation, inner room of a dwelling”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunungu, equivalent to wone + -ing. Cognate with Scots wonnyng, wonyng, wonyn (“habitation, dwelling, shelter”), Dutch woning (“dwelling, house”), German Wohnung (“dwelling, apartment”), Swedish våning (“floor, apartment, flat”).

wonk

Origin

American English student slang 1954; perhaps navy slang before that. "Expert" sense popularized in the Clinton administration, 1993. Origin uncertain, possibly from wonky (“shaky, unreliable”) or wank, wanker or simply expressive.

wonkaesque

Origin

Wonka + -esque

wonky

Old English

From a British dialect word "wanky," itself from Old English wancol, "unstable, shaky."

wont

Old English

From Old English gewunod, "accustomed," related to the verb wunian, "to dwell, be used to."

wonted

Origin

From Middle English woonted (“usual, customary”), from wont (“custom, habit, practice”), alteration of wone (“custom, habit, practice”), from Old English wuna (“custom, habit, practice; usual, wonted”), from Proto-Germanic *wunô (“custom, practice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to wish, love”). Cognate with Old Frisian wona, wuna (“custom”), Old High German giwona (“custom”). More at wont, wone.

wontedly

Origin

From wonted + -ly.

wontish

Origin

From wont (“custom, habit”) + -ish.

wontly

Origin

From wont + -ly.

wonton

Cantonese

Borrowed from Cantonese wan tan, meaning roughly "swallowing a cloud" — a poetic description of the dumpling floating in broth.

woo

Old English

From Old English wogian, "to woo or court," of uncertain deeper origin.

woobie

Origin

From the 1983 film Mr. Mom, in which it is a child's word for his security blanket; perhaps from a childish diminutive of *woob (compare plushie, from plush), an alternative pronunciation of wub, from wuv, a baby talk form of love (cf. luv).

wood

Old English

From Old English wudu, "wood, forest, timber," from a very old Germanic root related to Dutch wede and Icelandic viður.

woodbine

Origin

From Middle English wodebynd, wodebynde, from Old English wudubind, wudubinde (“woodbine”), equivalent to wood + bine.

Woodbury

Old English

From Old English wudu (“wood”) + byriġ, the dative case of burg (“fortified place”).

woodcarver

Origin

From wood + carver.

woodchuck

Origin

A reshaping of an Algonquian word (related to Cree and Ojibwe terms for "fisher," a different animal) that was later mistakenly attached to the groundhog because it sounded similar.

woodcock

Old English

From Old English wudecocc, literally "wood" plus "cock" (bird), describing where it lives.

woodcutter

Origin

A straightforward compound of "wood" and "cutter."

woodcutting

Origin

From wood + cutting.

wooded

Origin

From "wood" plus the adjective ending "-ed."

wooden

Middle English

From "wood" plus "-en," replacing the older Middle English word "treen" for "made of wood."

Woodford

Old English

From Old English wudu (“wood”) + ford (“ford”).