whey

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English whei, also wei and wheie,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hwǣġ, also hweġ,^[5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *hwaja-.^[3] Its cognates are Middle Dutch wey, Dutch wei, West Frisian waei and Low German wei;^[5][8][9] by ablaut Middle Low German huy and hoie, and Dutch hui, go back to a variant *hwuja-.^[8][5][6] Etymonline and Klein call the word of unknown or uncertain origin.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster considers it perhaps related to Latin cāseus (“cheese”),^[10] Partridge linked it further with Old Church Slavonic and Sanskrit words for leaven and seething;^[11] Klein rejects both comparisons.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The watery part of milk left after the curd has separated: in the Old English Corpus Glossary,^[5] before 800 according to Barnhart, glossing Latin serum.^[9][7] Old English laws laid down that a servant woman should be given whey in summer.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has hardly changed since Old English.^[5][2] The Middle English form wei is in The Owl and the Nightingale, and whey in Lanfranc's surgery (about 1400).^[9][2] In medicine the word was also used from 1578 to 1718 for the serum of the blood,^[5][6] and Johnson (1755) explained it as "the thin or serous part of milk", noting its use for anything white and thin, as in Shakespeare's whey face.^[12] From 1647 whey was used as an adjective, whey-coloured,^[5] and the compounds whey-faced and wheyface describe a pale face.^[6] Northern and Scottish dialect had many compounds, such as whey-butter (made from whey), whey-brose (brose made with whey) and whey-bird (the woodlark).^[13]

Timeline

• before 800 – the watery part of milk, hwæg.^[9][5]
• c. 1250 – Middle English wei, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[2][9]
• 1530 – whey of butter, buttermilk, and other qualified uses.^[5]
• 1578 – the serum of the blood (obsolete by 1718).^[5]
• 1647 – adjective, whey-coloured.^[5]
• 1660 – verb, to separate the whey from milk (obsolete by 1877).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The watery liquid that separates from the curd when milk curdles, especially in cheese-making: Little Miss Muffet ate her curds and whey.^[10][14][5]
2. (obsolete, 1578–1718) The serum of the blood.^[5][6]

Word family

• wheyey
• wheylike
• wheyish
• wheyface

Related words

• whig

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins