whim

Etymology

It is a shortening of whim-wham, a fanciful object or trifle,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} though the OED, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English call its origin uncertain or unknown.^{[7][8][9][10]} Barnhart and Etymonline take the sense "caprice" as probably shortened from whimsy.^[2][3] Whim-wham is recorded from the early 16th century, in Skelton;^[7] the OED sees it as a reduplication with a change of vowel, like flimflam, applied to trivial things.^[7] It notes that Old Norse hvima (“to wander with the eyes”) and hvimsa (“to be taken aback”) suggest a Scandinavian origin, but thinks a native symbolic formation more likely, since whim-wham is the earliest word of the group.^[7] Skeat and Partridge derived the group from Old Norse,^[11][12] and Weekley compared Danish vimse (“to run about aimlessly”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pun or play on words: 1641, in Richard Brome's play A Jovial Crew;^[14][2] the OED dates the same quotation to 1652.^[7] Etymonline dates the word to the 1640s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, a pun, did not last beyond the 17th century.^[7][8][3] From 1678 a whim was a fanciful or fantastic creation, a sense used until 1821.^[7][15] The main modern sense, a sudden fancy or capricious notion, is recorded from 1697, in Vanbrugh's The Provok'd Wife;^[7][2] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s, and Merriam-Webster gives 1686.^[3][15] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a freak; an odd fancy; a caprice", and reported Skinner's derivation from a thing turning round.^[16] From 1738 whim was also a horse-driven winding machine for raising ore or water from a mine;^[7][9][5] the OED compares the transfer of meaning in engine and gin.^[7] Wright recorded the mining word from Northumberland to Cornwall.^[17] The verb meant "to be giddy" (1700), and "to desire on a whim" from 1842.^[7]

Timeline

• 1641 – a pun, a play on words (obsolete).^[2] The OED dates the quotation to 1652.^[7]
• 1678 – a fanciful or fantastic creation (obsolete by 1821).^[7]
• 1697 – a sudden fancy, a capricious notion.^[7][2]
• 1700 – verb, of the head, to be giddy.^[7]
• 1738 – a horse-driven winding machine used at mines.^[7]
• 1842 – verb, to desire capriciously.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden, passing and often fanciful idea or wish; a caprice: They bought the boat on a whim.^[5][15][7]
2. Capricious humour in general: subject to the whim of the director.^[7][15]
3. A horse-driven winch formerly used in mining to raise ore or water.^[5][7]
4. (archaic) A fanciful or fantastic object or creation.^[15][7]
5. (obsolete) A pun or play on words.^[7][8]

Verb

1. To desire capriciously.^[15][7]

Word family

• whimsy

Related words

• whimsical
• whim-wham

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)