Etymologically
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windy

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English windi,[2] inherited from Old English windig,[3][4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *windigaz,[1] formed from wind (modern wind) and the adjective suffix -ig (modern -y).[4][3][8] It is cognate with Middle Dutch windich (modern Dutch windig), Middle High German windec (modern German windig) and the rare Old Norse vindugr.[8][5] The OED notes that its range of senses is close to that of Latin ventōsus, which it often translates.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of weather or a season: marked by strong or frequent winds.[8][3] It is in the Old English West Saxon Gospels, where a windig storm comes down on the lake (Luke 8:23),[8][5] and in phrases such as windig sumer, a windy summer.[5] The word also occurs in Beowulf.[9] Old English also used it of places exposed to the wind and of flatulence.[8][3]

Semantic evolution

Several senses were already Old English: exposed to the wind, moved by the wind, swift or changeable like the wind, and, in Bald's Leechbook, full of gas in the stomach.[8][3] In Middle English it was used of food that causes wind, before 1398 in Trevisa,[8][3] and of bombastic, empty speech from about 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible;[8] from before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's Virgil, it described a person who talks at length and says little.[8] Johnson (1755) listed "consisting of wind", "next the wind" and "empty, airy" among its senses.[10] Later uses include gods of the winds (1554), wind instruments (1590)[8] and, as a noun in American slang, a tall tale (1895).[8][4] The slang sense "nervous, scared" is related to get the wind up, to become frightened, and is recorded from 1873 in America and then mostly in British and soldiers' use.[11] Etymonline notes that Chicago has been called the Windy City at least since 1885.[3] English dialects had compounds such as windy-bags for an incessant talker.[12]

Timeline

  • Old English – of weather or a season, marked by strong winds.[8][5]
  • Old English – of a place, exposed to the wind; affected by flatulence.[8][3]
  • c. 1382 – of speech, bombastic and empty.[8]
  • before 1398 – of food, causing flatulence.[8][3]
  • before 1522 – of a person, long-winded.[8]
  • 1590 – of a musical instrument, sounded by wind.[8]
  • 1873 – slang, nervous, scared.[11]
  • 1885 – Chicago called the Windy City.[3]
  • 1895 – noun, a tall tale.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Marked by strong or frequent wind: a windy afternoon.[4][13][8]
  2. Open to the wind; unsheltered: a windy hilltop.[4][13][8]
  3. Using many words but saying little; verbose or bombastic.[4][13][8]
  4. Lacking substance; empty: windy promises.[4][13]
  5. (chiefly British) Flatulent, or of food, causing flatulence.[4][13][8]
  6. (slang, chiefly British) Nervous or frightened.[11]

Noun

  1. (North American slang) A tall tale or boastful story.[4][6][8]

Word family

  • windily
  • windiness
  • unwindy

Usage notes

A separate windy, pronounced /ˈwaɪndi/, means winding, especially of a road; it is formed from the verb wind, to turn, and is recorded from 1757 in the OED and in Merriam-Webster from 1871.[8][6][14] In early Middle English an unrelated windi meant free of or quit of someone, as in the life of Saint Juliana.[2] In Scots and Anglo-Irish windy is also a pronunciation of window.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Klaeber, Fr., ed. (1922), Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, Boston: D. C. Heath
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ 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)
  13. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  14. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster