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whole

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”).

The spelling with wh-, attested since ca. 1400, represents an excrescent /w/, which developed in words with initial /(h)ɔː/, /(h)oː/ in southwestern dialects of Middle English.[1] While this pronunciation did not establish itself in the standard language (except in one), the spelling survived in whole and whore, in the former case likely reinforced by a desire to disambiguate from hole.

Cognates

Compare West Frisian hiel, Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hel, Norwegian Nynorsk heil; also Welsh coel (“omen”), Breton kel (“omen, mention”), Old Prussian kails (“healthy”), Old Church Slavonic цѣлъ (cělŭ, “healthy, unhurt”). Related to hale, health, hail, hallow, heal, and holy.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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whole (comparative wholer or more whole, superlative wholest or most whole)

  1. Entire, undivided.
    Synonyms: total; see also Thesaurus:entire
    I ate a whole fish.
    • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond‎[2]:
      During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:
      Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
    • 1900 February 3 [1900 January 31], “THE STATE OF SHANTUNG.”, in Hongkong Weekly Press, volume L, number 5, sourced from Daily Press, page 71, column 1:
      A traveller in 1887 describes the difference between the peoples found when crossing the frontier in the Ichow prefecture. In Kiangsu he had been met by rudeness and obstruction, on his entering Shantung, at the very first village he was received with courtesy and even kindness, and he found the same feelings expressed through the whole province.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      “ […] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”
    • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
      Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages.
    1. Used as an intensifier.
      I brought a whole lot of balloons for the party.   She ate a whole bunch of french fries.
      • 2016, Rae Carson, Like a River Glorious, HarperCollins, →ISBN:
        There, a huge blue heron stands sentry like a statue, eye on the surface, waiting for his next meal to wriggle by. A lone grassy hill overlooks it all, well above the flood line, big enough to pitch a whole mess of tents [on].
      • 2011, Keith Maillard, Looking Good: Difficulty at the Beginning, Brindle and Glass, →ISBN:
        I'm thinking, thanks a whole fuck of a lot, Robert. You could have laid that on me weeks ago.
  2. Sound, uninjured, healthy.
    Synonyms: hale, well; see also Thesaurus:healthy
    He is of whole mind, but the same cannot be said about his physical state.
    • 1939, Alfred Edward Housman, Additional Poems, X, lines 5-6:
      Here, with one balm for many fevers found, / Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound.
  3. (of food) From which none of its constituents has been removed.
    whole wheat; whole milk
  4. (mining) As yet unworked.

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb

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whole (comparative more whole, superlative most whole)

  1. (colloquial) In entirety; entirely; wholly.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:completely
    I ate a fish whole!
    That’s a whole other story.

Translations

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Noun

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whole (plural wholes)

  1. Something complete, without any parts missing.
    Synonyms: entireness, totality; see also Thesaurus:entirety
    Meronym: part
    This variety of fascinating details didn't fall together into an enjoyable, coherent whole.
  2. An entirety.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 430, page 997.

Further reading

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  • “whole”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • All and whole — Linguapress online English grammar

Anagrams

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