Etymologically
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whiff

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is imitative,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] perhaps partly an alteration of weffe (“a foul smell, vapour”) and partly a new imitative formation.[9][10][11][12] The Middle English noun, also wef, meant a bad smell or stench, or a vapour, and is recorded from about 1300;[13] the OED calls it of obscure origin and continued by waft,[9] and Barnhart traces it in waff, a puff or gust (1686), and weft, a bad taste or smell (1542).[10] Barnhart and Etymonline also suggest a link with whiffle, to blow in gusts, recorded from 1568,[10][14] and Etymonline thinks the modern word is likely a fresh coinage prompted by the arrival of tobacco from the New World.[14] Johnson derived it from Welsh chwyth.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slight puff or gust of air: 1591.[2][10] The OED's first record of the noun is from 1600, in Jonson, of an inhalation of tobacco smoke, and of a puff of wind from 1603, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.[9]

Semantic evolution

Many early uses concern tobacco: to take the whiff was to smoke (1600),[9][16] and the verb meant to smoke from 1602.[9] For a time a whiff was also a sip of liquor (1605–1653).[9] Johnson (1755) defined it as a blast or puff of wind, quoting Hamlet.[15] The sense "waft of (usually unpleasant) smell" dates from 1668, and the verb "to sniff, smell" from 1635.[9] Later came a puffing or whistling sound (1712), a puff of smoke (1715) and a discharge of shot (1837);[9] Weekley notes that "The Whiff of Grapeshot" is the title of Carlyle's chapter on Bonaparte's suppression of the Paris mob.[17] The figurative sense, a flavour or hint, is from 1872.[9][14] In slang the verb meant to smell bad (1899, in Kipling),[9][16] and in American baseball to miss the ball (1913), whence a noun for a miss.[9][14] In Scottish, Irish and northern dialect a whiff was also a glimpse or passing view.[18]

Timeline

  • 1591 – a slight puff or gust of air.[2][10] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1603.[9]
  • 1600 – an inhalation of tobacco smoke.[9] To take the whiff meant to smoke.[9]
  • 1602 – verb, to smoke.[9]
  • 1605 – a sip of liquor (obsolete by 1653).[9]
  • 1635 – verb, to inhale, sniff.[9]
  • 1668 – a waft of smell, usually an unpleasant one.[9]
  • 1712 – a puffing or whistling sound.[9]
  • 1837 – a discharge of shot.[9]
  • 1872 – a flavour or trace.[9][14]
  • 1899 – slang, to smell unpleasant.[9][16]
  • 1913 – US slang, of a batter or golfer, to miss the ball.[9][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A slight or passing smell, often an unpleasant one: a whiff of burnt toast from the kitchen.[6][2][9]
  2. A brief, gentle gust or puff of air, smoke or vapour.[6][2][9]
  3. A single breath in or out, especially of tobacco smoke.[6][9]
  4. A faint trace or hint of something: a whiff of scandal.[9][14]

Verb

  1. To blow or move in puffs; to waft.[6][2][9]
  2. To breathe in or puff out smoke or air.[6][9]
  3. To sniff or smell.[6][2][9]
  4. (British slang) To smell unpleasant.[6][9][16]
  5. (US slang) In baseball or golf, to miss the ball; to strike out.[9][14]

Word family

  • whiffer
  • whiffle
  • waft
  • waff

Usage notes

A separate whiff, a name for several flatfishes such as the megrim, is recorded from 1713.[9][4] Merriam-Webster calls its origin unknown, while the OED and the Shorter Oxford think it perhaps the same word.[9][4][2] A verb whiff, to fish with a hand-line from a fast-moving boat, is recorded from 1886.[9][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  18. ^ 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)