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whist

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Etymology and origin of the English word whist

Pronunciation

whist1 hush, be quiet

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1425 before 1425, Wycliffite Bible (early version)
From
Middle English whist

Etymology

The word for silence is inherited from Middle English whist,[2][3] of imitative origin,[2][3][4][5][6] a natural utterance commanding silence, comparable to hist, hush and whisht.[7][8][6] The Middle English Dictionary adds that it may have been influenced by other imperative verbs of similar sound or by hust.[2] The adjective and the verb are formed from the exclamation.[7][9] For Irish English, Dolan thinks it most likely an aspirated form of the sound spelled “st!”, and compares Irish éist (“please be silent, listen”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

An exclamation, hush!: in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, in a manuscript from before 1425 of a text from before 1382, at Judges 18:19.[7][2][8] Barnhart dates the word to about 1374, from Chaucer's translation of Boethius,[11] but the Middle English Dictionary reads whist only in a manuscript of about 1400 there, where the Riverside edition has hust.[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective "silent" is recorded from before 1500 in the OED, in Chaucer's Boethius,[7] and Merriam-Webster also dates it to the 15th century.[3] The verb "to be silent" appears before 1547, in the Earl of Surrey's translation of Virgil,[7] though Merriam-Webster dates it to the 14th century.[3] Transitive uses, "to put to silence" and "to keep secret", lasted only into the late 16th and early 17th centuries.[7][12] Johnson (1755) noted that Skinner called it an interjection, while Shakespeare used it as a verb and Milton as an adjective, in "The winds, with wonder whist".[13] The word is now archaic or dialectal,[7][9] and Collins gives it as a Scottish variant of whisht.[14] In Irish English to hold one's whist means to keep silent, recorded from about 1874 in Boucicault's Shaughraun.[7][10]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – exclamation, hush![7][2]
  • before 1500 – adjective, silent, hushed.[7] The Middle English Dictionary has it from about 1400.[2]
  • before 1547 – verb, to become or be silent.[7]
  • 1557 – transitive verb, to put to silence (obsolete by 1602).[7]
  • 1570 – transitive verb, to keep secret (obsolete by 1594).[7]
  • before 1648 – noun, an utterance of "whist!" (obsolete).[7]
  • c. 1874 – to hold one's whist, to keep silent.[7]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. (archaic or dialect) Hush! Be quiet![7][9][14]

Adjective

  1. (archaic or dialect) Silent, quiet, still.[3][9][7][14]

Verb

  1. (archaic or dialect) To become or keep silent.[3][7][9][14]

Noun

  1. (Irish English) Silence, in to hold one's whist.[7][9][10]

whist2 card game

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1663 Butler, Hudibras
Ultimate origin
English whisk
Etymology tree of whist2
inherited borrowed derived
English whisk
English whist

Etymology

The name of the card game is an alteration from English whisk, the earlier name of the game,[7][11][9][15][8] recorded from 1621[7][11] and, according to Barnhart, alluded to as early as 1529.[11] That name is usually explained from the action of whisking up the tricks,[3][16][5][17][8][6][11] though Dictionary.com calls the sense relationship uncertain.[4] Charles Cotton's “The Complete Gamester” (1680) said instead that the game was named from the silence to be kept in play.[16][11][7] Most dictionaries allow the exclamation for silence only an influence on the form,[15][3][5][17][18] and the Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, held that the rule of silence rests partly on the false etymology.[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The card game itself: 1663, in Butler's Hudibras.[7][11][3] Under the older name whisk the first record is 1621, in J. Taylor's Motto.[7]

Semantic evolution

Whist is a forerunner of bridge.[14][11][19] Johnson (1755) defined it as a card game that required close attention and silence, quoting Swift.[13] The verb, to play whist or to play out a card at whist, is recorded from 1810.[7]

Timeline

  • 1621 – whisk, the earlier name of the game.[7][11]
  • 1663 – whist, the card game.[7][11][3]
  • 1810 – verb, to play whist.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A card game for four players in two partnerships, scored by the tricks won over six; an ancestor of bridge.[14][19][20]

Verb

  1. (rare) To play whist.[9][7]

Word family

  • whister
  • whist drive
  • long whist
  • short whist
  • solo whist

Usage notes

The OED also records rare imitative uses of the spelling: "to whisper" (before 1555), "a whistling sound" (1579) and an imitation of the sound of a whistle (from 1861).[7][12]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  16. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  17. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  19. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  20. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
Cite this entry

“Whist.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/whist. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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