Etymograph

English

whole

Whole comes from Middle English whol ‘healthy, unhurt, whole’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kéh₂ilos‘healthy’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hailaz‘whole’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hail‘healthy’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hāl‘healthy’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500whol‘healthy’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1661whole

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kéh₂ilos‘healthy’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hailaz‘whole’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hail‘healthy’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hāl‘healthy’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500whol‘healthy’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1661whole

Earliest quotation: 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned: “During the whole time of his abode in the…”

The story

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. 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.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos ‘healthy, whole’

heal, hallowed, 2 more

through Proto-Germanic *hailaz ‘whole, safe, sound’

health, healing, holy, hail, hallow, 4 more

through Proto-West Germanic *hail ‘healthy, sound’

heil

through Old English hāl ‘healthy, safe’

hale

Today it means

adj Entire, undivided.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos / whole

Shirt and support for this word