Etymologically
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whim

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Pronunciation

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

  • 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)