Contextualizebeta

wholesome

adj
/ˈhoʊl.səm/US/ˈhəʊl.səm/UK

Etymology

From earlier holesome, from Middle English holsom, holsum, helsum, halsum, from Old English *hālsum, *hǣlsum, from Proto-West Germanic *hailasam, from Proto-Germanic *hailasamaz, equivalent to whole + -some or hale (“healthy”) + -some. Cognate with Saterland Frisian heelsoam, Dutch heilzaam, German Low German heelsaam, German heilsam, Icelandic heilsamur, Norwegian Nynorsk helsesam, Swedish hälsosam (“wholesome”).

  1. inherited from *hailasamaz✻
  2. inherited from *hailasam✻
  3. inherited from *hālsum✻
  4. inherited from holsom

Definitions

  1. Promoting good physical health and well-being.

    • I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt, I care not what, ſo it be holſome foode.

  2. Promoting moral and mental well-being.

    • Though hard, my friends, yet wholesome are the truths, taught in affliction's school, whence the pure soul rises refined, and soars above the world.

  3. Favorable to morals, religion or prosperity

    Favorable to morals, religion or prosperity; sensible; conducive to good; salutary; promoting virtue or being virtuous.

    • A wholeſome tongue is a tree of life: but peruerſneſſe therein is a breach in the ſpirit.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. Marked by wholeness

      Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.

    2. Decent

      Decent; innocuous; sweet.

      • Sometimes white Lyllies did their Leaves afford, With wholſom Polly-flow'rs, to mend his homely Board: […]
      • The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.
      • There's something tragic, but almost pure Think I could love you, but I'm not sure There's something wholesome, there's something sweet Tucked in your eyes that I'd love to meet

The neighborhood

Derived

wholesomely, wholesomeness

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for wholesome. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA