whole

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Complete; with no part missing.

   I ate a whole pizza by myself.

2. 2
   noun

   All of something, including all its parts.

   Europe should be considered as a whole.

3. 3
   adj

   With nothing removed; not refined.

   I prefer whole milk to skimmed milk.

4. 4
   adv

   In one piece; entirely.

   The snake swallowed the egg whole.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Whole comes from Old English and shares its root with holy, which is related to Dutch and German heilig. It is also related to hale and hail, as is the second element of the Old Norse toast wassail, literally “be in good health.”

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. 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 desi…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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