wavy

Etymology

It is formed from English wave + -y, from the noun or the verb,^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline taking it from the noun.^[6] An earlier Middle English adjective, wauī (“full of waves, billowy”), also spelled wawi, was formed from waue (“wave”) and is recorded from about 1425, in Lydgate's “Troy Book”.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In heraldry, of a line or a field: undulating, the same as undé: 1562, in G. Legh's Accedens of Armory.^[2][3] The Middle English adjective of about 1425 meant full of waves.^[7]

Semantic evolution

After the heraldic use, the OED records the sense "full of waves, billowy" in Nashe (1593);^[2] Etymonline dates "having a wavy appearance" to the 1580s and "abounding in waves" to the 1590s,^[6] and Merriam-Webster gives about 1586 for its first sense.^[8] From about 1595 it was said of air and clouds.^[2] In the 18th century it described undulating lines (before 1701), things moving to and fro with a wave-like motion (1708, in Philips's Cyder) and gently rolling ground (1774, in Goldsmith).^[2] Etymonline dates its use for movements forming wave-like curves to 1701.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, rising in waves and playing to and fro in undulations,^[5] and Webster (1828) added a botanical use for an undulating border or surface.^[9] The figurative sense "wavering, changing" first appears in Coleridge in 1795.^[2] Naturalists used it of undulate margins and markings from 1832,^[2] and since 1884 a wavy has also been a wavy-coated retriever.^[2] In recent US Black slang wavy means flashy or fashionably dressed.^[10]

Timeline

• 1562 – heraldry, of a line or field: undulating.^[2][3]
• 1593 – full of waves, billowy.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1590s.^[6]
• c. 1595 – of air or clouds.^[2]
• before 1701 – forming an undulating line or a series of curves.^[2][6]
• 1708 – moving to and fro with a wave-like motion.^[2]
• 1774 – of ground, rising and falling gently.^[2]
• 1795 – figurative, fluctuating, wavering.^[2]
• 1832 – botany and zoology, of margins and markings.^[2]
• 1884 – of a dog, having a wavy coat; also as a noun, a wavy-coated retriever.^[2]
• 2008 – US Black slang, flashy, fashionably dressed.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a series of wave-like curves; undulating: She drew a wavy border round the card.^[11][12][8]
2. Of hair, set in or having waves and loose curls: The boy's wavy red hair fell over his eyes.^[11][13]
3. Full of or rising in waves: the wavy surface of the bay.^[13][8][2]
4. Moving to and fro with an undulating motion.^[8][2]
5. Of land, rising and falling gently; rolling.^[8][2]
6. Unsteady or wavering.^[11][13][8]
7. (heraldry) Divided or edged by a line of shallow alternating curves.^[12][2]

Noun

1. A wavy-coated retriever.^[2]

Word family

• wavily
• waviness

Related words

• wave
• undé

Usage notes

Weekley also records wavy as a North American name for the snow goose, which he traces to a Native American word wawa.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray