whitewash

Etymology

It is formed from English white + wash.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The revised OED takes the noun from the same adjective and the noun rather than the verb, and regards the verb as partly a compound and partly a conversion of the noun.^[3] In its sense of a skin lotion, the noun follows New Latin lotio alba.^[3] The earlier verb for coating with white was whitelime, recorded about 1300, and whiting was used of the composition by the early 15th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make fabric lighter or whiter; to bleach: 1576, in G. Baker's translation of Gesner's Newe Jewell of Health.^[3] The noun for the wall coating follows about 1584,^[3] and the verb for applying it in 1591, in Perceval's Bibliotheca Hispanica.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun only to 1678 and Etymonline to the 1690s, but the revised OED has it from about 1584.^[5][2][3] A cosmetic for lightening the skin was called a whitewash from 1649,^[3] and Johnson (1755) knew only this noun, "a wash to make the skin seen fair", quoting Addison on a whole sermon against it.^[7] The figurative verb, to conceal someone's faults or clear them of blame, is recorded from 1703,^[3] and the noun from 1730, in Bolingbroke,^[3] earlier than Etymonline's 1762 and 1851.^[2] Etymonline compares the early 14th-century phrase to wash oneself white, to cleanse oneself spiritually.^[2] From 1761 the verb was also used of clearing a bankrupt from debts,^[3][8][4] and the Sydney Herald in 1840 called whitewashed the "blackguard slang" of debtors who used the old insolvency law.^[8] The sporting sense began in American baseball, for a game in which the loser fails to score: the noun in 1866, the verb in 1867.^[3][8] In Britain it can now mean defeat in every match of a series.^[9] From 1882 a whitewash could be a report or investigation that hides awkward facts.^[3] Since 1965 the verb has also been used of distorting history or a narrative so as to leave out non-white people.^[3] Slang also used the word for a glass of sherry after dinner, from the 1850s,^[3][8] and for milk in the 1945 American railway slang recorded by Hubbard.^[8]

Timeline

• 1576 – to bleach fabric (obsolete by 1650).^[3]
• c. 1584 – noun, a white mineral preparation in water for walls and ceilings.^[3]
• 1591 – to coat a wall or building with whitewash.^[3][5]
• 1649 – noun, a cosmetic that makes the skin look lighter.^[3]
• 1703 – to conceal the faults of; to free from blame.^[3]
• 1730 – noun, something used to conceal faults.^[3]
• 1761 – to clear a person from liability for debts.^[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it implied in 1762.^[8]
• 1853 – slang, white wine taken after dinner, especially sherry (obsolete by 1879).^[3]
• 1866 – noun, a win in which the loser fails to score, originally in baseball.^[3]
• 1867 – verb, to beat an opponent who fails to score.^[3][8]
• 1882 – noun, a report or investigation that conceals awkward facts.^[3]
• 1897 – noun, a medicinal lotion for skin diseases.^[3]
• 1965 – verb, to distort history or a narrative so as to exclude non-white people.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mixture of lime or whiting and water, often with size added, used to whiten walls and other surfaces.^[9][5][3]
2. Words or actions meant to hide faults or wrongdoing; especially, a report or inquiry that covers up awkward facts.^[9][6][3]
3. (informal) A defeat in which the loser scores nothing; in Britain also, a defeat in every match of a series.^[10][9][3]
4. A medicinal lotion for skin diseases.^[3]
5. Bird excrement that forms a chalky coating around a nest or perch.^[5]
6. (historical) A cosmetic for lightening the skin.^[3][5][11]
7. (obsolete, 1853–79) A glass of white wine, especially sherry, taken after dinner.^[3][8][11]

Verb

1. To coat a surface with whitewash: They whitewashed the barn each spring.^[9][5][3]
2. To hide the faults of a person or institution, or to clear them of blame by a superficial or biased inquiry.^[5][4][3]
3. (British) To clear a bankrupt of liabilities by legal process.^[5][3][4]
4. (informal) To beat an opponent who fails to score.^[10][3][4]
5. To distort history or a narrative so as to leave out non-white people.^[3]

Word family

• whitewasher
• whitewashing

Related words

• white
• wash
• whiten
• whiting
• greenwash
• pinkwash

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap