# wholesome
## English
### 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”).

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈholsəm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Adjective

wholesome (comparative more wholesome or wholesomer, superlative most wholesome or wholesomest)
* Promoting good physical health and well-being.
** c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 223, column 2:I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt, I care not what, ſo it be holſome foode.
* Promoting moral and mental well-being.
** 1750, “Theodora”, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music)‎: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.
* Favorable to morals, religion or prosperity; sensible; conducive to good; salutary; promoting virtue or being virtuous.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 15:4, column 1:A wholeſome tongue is a tree of life: but peruerſneſſe therein is a breach in the ſpirit.
* Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.
* Decent; innocuous; sweet.
** 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 128, lines 195–196:Sometimes white Lyllies did their Leaves afford, With wholſom Polly-flow'rs, to mend his homely Board: […]
** 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.
** 2017 April 13, Mitchy Collins, Samantha Derosa, Christian Medice, “Broken”, in Finding It Hard to Smile‎, performed by Lovelytheband: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
** 2019, Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Riverhead Books, →ISBN:Around the same time, “wholesome” memes of cute doggos and puppers rejuvenated social media feeds that seemed daily filled with fresh horrors.
** 2020 February 3, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Misogynistic Joke That Became a Goth-Meme Fairy Tale”, in The Atlantic‎:The comment section on a recent post making fun of a “cute” and “wholesome” Doomer Girl meme is mixed.

#### Alternative forms

* holesom, holesome, wholsom, wholsome (obsolete)

#### Synonyms

* (promoting health): healthy, healthful, salubrious

#### Antonyms

* unwholesome

#### Derived terms

* wholesomely
* wholesomeness

#### Translations
### References

* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “wholesome”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “wholesome”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.