Etymologically
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wilt

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Pronunciation

Etymology

The verb is of uncertain origin.[2][3] It began as a dialect word, in the early 19th century largely American, with a widespread variant welt.[3][4] Most dictionaries take it as probably an alteration of the dialect verb wilk, a variant of welk (“to wither, fade”).[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Barnhart thinks it was influenced by the earlier verb welter (“to wilt”) (1645).[5] That verb is welken, recorded from the 13th century,[4][3][10] probably from Middle Dutch welken (“to wither”) or welken,[3][4][5][8][11] cognate with Old High German irwelkēn (“to wilt”) and irwelhēn (“to become soft”).[4][5][6] Klein traces the family to the Indo-European base Proto-Indo-European *welg- (“wet”), also the source of welkin,[8][4] and Weekley notes the same interchange of -k and -t in the 16th-century spelling “Wilkshire” for Wiltshire.[9] The noun comes from the verb (1855).[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of plants or their parts, to become limp through heat or drought: 1691, in John Ray's Collection of English Words.[3][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s.[4]

Semantic evolution

From drooping plants the verb passed to people: from 1787, in a letter of Abigail Adams, it meant to lose energy or spirit.[3] The transitive sense, to cause to wilt, appears in 1809 according to Etymonline,[4] and in the OED from before 1817.[3] The noun, an act of wilting, followed in 1855,[3][6] and came to name plant diseases marked by wilting.[3][12][6] In farming, since 1971, to wilt mown grass is to let it dry partly in the open before it goes into a silo.[3] In the dialects of Scotland, Ireland and England it also meant to dry hay in the sun, and of a fretting child, to droop.[13]

Timeline

  • 1691 – of plants, to become limp or droop.[3][5]
  • 1787 – to lose energy or spirit.[3]
  • 1809 – transitive, to cause to wilt.[4] The OED's first record is from before 1817.[3]
  • 1855 – noun, an act of wilting; later a plant disease.[3][6][5]
  • 1971 – agriculture, to let mown grass dry partly before ensiling it.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a plant or flower, to become limp and droop through heat or lack of water: The lettuces wilted in the afternoon sun.[12][6][3]
  2. Of a person, to lose energy, courage or spirit: Her confidence wilted under the questioning.[12][6][3]
  3. To make something limp or flaccid, or to sap its energy.[12][3]
  4. To cook leafy vegetables very briefly, until they begin to soften.[12]
  5. (agriculture) To leave mown grass to dry partly in the open before putting it in a silo.[3]

Noun

  1. The act of wilting, or a wilted state.[12][6][3]
  2. Any of various plant diseases, often caused by fungi, in which the plant wilts.[12][6][3]

Word family

  • oak wilt
  • welk
  • welkin
  • wither

Usage notes

A separate word, wilt is also the archaic second person singular present of will, as in thou wilt.[2][8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ 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)
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ 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)