whole

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /həʊl/, US /hoʊl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hool or hole, inherited from Old English hāl (“entire, unhurt, healthy”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *hailaz,^[3][5] with cognates in Old Frisian hāl, Old Saxon hēl, Dutch heel, Old High German heil and Old Norse heill.^[3][6] It comes from Proto-Indo-European *kailo- (“whole, uninjured, of good omen”),^[2][3] which also gave Welsh coel (“omen”) and Old Prussian kailūstiskun (“health”).^[3][4] The spelling with wh- appeared in the early 15th century and reflects a dialect pronunciation with w;^[2][7][8] the word is a doublet of hale, and related to heal, health and holy.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Entire, unhurt, healthy, sound: Old English hāl, about 725, in Beowulf.^[3][2] It also meant “genuine, straightforward”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense of health faded from the word, which kept it in phrases such as Middle English with whole wits “of sound mind” (early 15th century);^[2] the noun meant “health, cure” about 1200 and “happiness” about 1300,^[2] before it came to mean “the full amount, the entire body” in the late 14th century (before 1387, in Trevisa).^[2][3] A whole number is early 14th century according to Etymonline^[2] and 1557 according to Barnhart,^[3] and whole milk is from 1782 or 1794.^[2][3] On the whole “all things considered” dates from the 1690s.^[2] Derivatives include wholesome (about 1200), wholly (before 1338), wholesale (before 1417, figuratively from 1642) and wholehearted (1840, American).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English hāl (Beowulf).^[3]
• c. 1200 – noun, health, cure, and wholesome.^[2][3]
• before 1338 – wholly.^[3]
• late 14th century – noun, the full amount.^[2]
• before 1417 – wholesale.^[3]
• 1420 – spelling wholle.^[3]
• 1557 – whole number.^[3]
• 1690s – on the whole.^[2]
• 1782 – whole milk.^[2]
• 1840 – wholehearted.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Containing all its parts; complete.
2. Not divided; in one piece.
3. Full in amount or duration: the whole day.
4. Unhurt; sound or healed.
5. Of a number, not a fraction; integral.

Noun

1. A complete thing, lacking no part.
2. A system made up of related parts.

Adverb

1. Entirely: swallowed whole.

Word family

• wholeness

Related words

• hale
• heal
• health
• holy
• hail
• wassail
• wholesome
• wholly

Usage notes

RHWU distinguishes whole, all there is, every part undivided, from total, the complete amount reached by adding things together.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House