英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

Whitsun [Whitsun 词源字典]: Whitsun: [OE] Whitsun is etymologically ‘white Sunday’. The name comes from the ancient tradition of clothing newly baptized people in white on the feast of Pentecost. The abbreviated form Whit began to be used with other days of the week (such as Whit Monday) in the 16th century, but its broader modern usage (as in Whit week, Whit bank holiday, etc) did not emerge until the end of the 19th century.
=> sunday, white[Whitsun etymology, Whitsun origin, 英语词源]
who: who: [OE] Who goes right back to Indo-European *qwos, *qwes (source also of Russian kto ‘who’), whose neuter form *qwod gave English what. Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *khwaz, *khwez, which has evolved into German wer, Dutch wie, Danish hvo, and English who. Whom comes from the Old English dative form hwǣm.
whole: whole: [OE] Whole is at the centre of a tightlyknit family of English words descended from prehistoric Germanic *khailaz ‘undamaged’ (the other members – hail ‘salute’, hale, hallow, heal, health, and holy – have have branched off in different semantic directions, but whole has stayed fairly close to its source). The Germanic form, which also produced German heil, Dutch heel, and Swedish and Danish hel, went back to an Indo-European *qoilos, source also of Russian celyj ‘whole’ and Welsh coel ‘good omen’. Hale [13] originated as a northern variant of whole (whose wh- spelling emerged in the 16th century).

The compound wholesome was probably formed in Old English, but it is not recorded until the 12th century.
=> hail, hale, hallow, heal, health, holy
whore: whore: [OE] A whore is etymologically a ‘lover’. The word goes back ultimately to the Indo- European base *qār-, which also produced Latin cārus ‘dear’ (source of English caress and charity), Old Irish caraim ‘I love’, and Latvian kārs ‘randy, greedy’. It gave prehistoric Germanic *khōrōn, which evolved into German hure, Dutch hoer, Swedish hora, Danish hore, and English whore (whose wh- spelling first appeared in the 16th century).
=> caress, charity
why: why: [OE] Why goes back to Indo-European *qwei, the locative case of the interrogative base *qwo- (source of English what and who). This passed into prehistoric Germanic as *khwī, which has since died out in all the Germanic languages apart from Danish (hvi) and English (why).
wick: wick: [OE] Wick ‘burning fibre in a candle or lamp’ has West Germanic relatives in German wieche and Dutch wiek, but its ultimate ancestry is uncertain (a connection has been suggested with Old Irish figim ‘I weave’). The wick of get on someone’s wick ‘annoy someone’, incidentally (first recorded in 1945), is probably a different word. It appears to be short for Hampton Wick, rhyming slang for ‘prick, penis’ (Hampton Wick is a district in southwest London; its wick means historically ‘village, town’, and is the same word ultimately as the -wich, -wick of English place-names).
wicked: wicked: [13] Wicked and witch are closely related. Wicked is an extension, using the suffix -ed, of the now obsolete adjective wick ‘wicked’. And this in turn originated as an adjectival use of Old English wicca ‘wizard’, whose feminine form is the ancestor of modern English witch.
=> witch
wicket: wicket: [13] A wicket was originally a ‘small gate’, and etymologically the word appears to denote something that ‘turns’ – presumably on a hinge in opening and closing. It was borrowed from Old Northern French wiket, which in turn came from a Germanic source represented also by modern Swedish vika ‘fold, turn’. The set of stumps originally used for cricket resembled a gate – indeed the game’s first batsmen may have defended an actual gate in a sheep pen – and so it came to be known as a wicket. This was in the 18th century; the extension of the term to the ‘pitch’ dates from the mid 19th century.
wide: wide: [OE] Wide is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German weit, Dutch wijd, and Swedish and Danish vid. All are descended from prehistoric Germanic *wīdaz, which may go back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wi- ‘apart, away’ (source also of Sanskrit vitarám ‘further’). Width was coined in the early 17th century, probably on the analogy of breadth.
widow: widow: [OE] A widow is etymologically a woman who has been ‘separated’, left ‘solitary’. The word goes back ultimately to Indo- European *widhewo, an adjective formed from the base *weidh- ‘separate’ (source also of English divide and Sanskrit vidhu- ‘solitary’). This produced a large number of words for ‘widow’ in the Indo-European languages, including Latin vidua (source of French veuve, Italian vedova, and Spanish viuda), Russian and Czech vdova, and Welsh gweddr. To the Germanic languages it has given German witwe and Dutch weduwe as well as English widow. Widower was coined in the 14th century.
=> divide, individual
width: width: see wide
wield: wield: [OE] To wield something is etymologically to ‘command’ or ‘rule’ it. Indeed, that is what the word originally meant in English. ‘Handle, use’ is a secondary development. It goes back to a prehistoric base *wald-, which also produced German walten, Lithuanian valdyti, Czech vládnouti, and Polish władać ‘rule, govern’ and Russian vladet’ ‘possess, own’. And this in turn was probably an extension of Indo-European *wal-, source also of Latin valēre ‘be strong’, from which English gets valid, value, etc.
=> valid, value
wife: wife: [OE] Wife originally meant simply ‘woman’, but the semantic restriction to ‘married woman’ began in the Old English period and has become more and more firmly established as the centuries have passed. Of the word’s Germanic relatives, German weib has largely been replaced by frau, and Dutch wijf, Swedish vif, and Danish viv are no longer front-line words. It is not known what its ultimate source was. A woman is etymologically a ‘wife-man’, that is, a ‘womanperson’, a ‘female-person’.
wig: wig: [17] Wig is short for periwig [16], which in turn is an alteration of perwike, a now defunct variant of peruke [16]; and peruke came via French perruque from Italian perrucca, a word of unknown origin. Wigging ‘scolding’, first recorded at the beginning of the 19th century, may have been inspired by the notion of being told off by a bigwig [18], etymologically a ‘highranking bewigged dignitary’.
=> periwig, peruke
wiggle: wiggle: see earwig
wild: wild: [OE] Wild is a general Germanic word, shared by German and Dutch (wild) and Swedish and Danish (vild). All go back to a prehistoric ancestor *wilthijaz, which in turn was probably descended from Indo-European *ghwelt- (source of Welsh gwyllt ‘wild’). The derivative wilderness [OE] etymologically denotes the ‘condition of being a wild animal’.

It originated as an abstract noun formed from Old English wild dēor ‘wild animal’. But by the time it appears in texts, the modern sense ‘wild land’ is complete. The noun is thought to have been the source of the now defunct verb wilder, which probably served as the basis of bewilder [17]. Wildebeest [19] was acquired from Afrikaans.
=> bewilder, wilderness
will: will: Will the noun [OE] and the two verbs will [OE] all go back ultimately to the Indo- European base *wel-, *wol- ‘be pleasing’, which also produced English voluntary, voluptuous, wealth, well ‘satisfactorily’, etc. From it was derived a noun, *weljon, which evolved into English will, and also German wille, Dutch wil, Swedish vilja, and Danish vilje.

The verb will ‘decide on or resolve by force of the will’ was formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from the noun. The auxiliary verb will, expressing intention or future time, comes from a prehistoric Germanic *weljan. Would evolved from its original Old English past form wolde.
=> voluntary, voluptuous, wealth, will, would
willy-nilly: willy-nilly: [17] Willy-nilly originated in the expression will I, nill I, literally ‘whether I wish it or do not wish it’ (nill ‘be unwilling’, long defunct as an independent verb, was formed from will and the negative prefix ne-)
wimp: wimp: [20] The first record of the word wimp ‘feeble ineffectual person’ is from as long ago as 1920, but it was not used at all widely until the early 1960s. Its origins have never been satisfactorily explained. It is tempting to link it with J. Wellington Wimpy, a curious little man with a moustache who featured in the Popeye cartoons, but he was not around in the 1920s.

Nor is it altogether plausible that it came from American slang gimp ‘lame or handicapped person’. Perhaps the least unlikely suggestion is that it is short for whimper. No connection with the now obsolete slang wimp ‘woman’ [20] (perhaps an alteration of women) has ever been demonstrated. In the 1980s WIMP was used as an acronym for ‘weakly interacting massive particle’ and for ‘widows/icon/mouse/pointer’, a computer term.
win: win: [OE] Win probably goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *van- ‘overcome, conquer’, which also produced Sanskrit van- ‘gain, acquire’. Its Germanic relatives include German gewinnen ‘gain’ and Swedish vinna ‘win’.