whilom
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwaɪləm/
ipa: /ˈwaɪləm/
ipa: /ˈʍaɪ-/
rhymes: -aɪləm
Forms: form: whilome
Etymology: From Middle English whilom (“(adverb) at one time, formerly, once; once upon a time; at times, sometimes; at a future time; (conjunction) while”) [and other forms], from Old English hwīlum, hwīlan, hwīlon (“at one time, once; sometimes”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlum, the dative plural of *hwīlu (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”), from Proto-Germanic *hwīlō (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”).
The Oxford English Dictionary regards adverb sense 2.2 (“for some time that has passed”) as “aberrant”.
Cognates
* Old High German hwīlōn (Middle High German wīlen, wīlent, German weiland (“at one time, formerly”))
* Old Saxon hwīlon (“sometimes”) (Middle Dutch wilen, Middle Low German wilen (“at one time, formerly”), Dutch wijlen (“deceased, late”))
Senses: examples: text: On the same day, two notable Female Prisoners are also put in ward there: Dame Dubarry and Josephine Beauharnais! Dame whilom Countess Dubarry, Unfortunate-female, had returned from London; they snatched her, not only as Ex-harlot of a whilom Majesty, and therefore suspect; but as having 'furnished the Emigrants with money.'
ref: 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Death”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 290:
text: The play must have appeared during the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, and must have been fresh in men's memory, when, as Plutarch tells us (Life of Lysander, c. 15), the deliberations about the fate of conquered Athens were determined by a Phocian actor singing the opening monody, which moved all to pity by its picture of a whilom princess reduced to miserable poverty.
ref: 1879, J[ohn] P[entland] Mahaffy, “His Plots”, in John Richard Green, editor, Euripides (Classical Writers), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, paragraph 43, page 60:
text: [S]he was expecting to be joined there by no such pale fellow-adventurer as her whilom uncle.
ref: 1909, Henry James, “Mora Montravers. Chapter V.”, in The Finer Grain, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published October 1910, →OCLC, page 99:
synonyms: word: erstwhile
word: quondam
word: antecedent
word: anterior
word: earlier
word: erstwhile
word: ex
word: foregone
word: former
word: hitherto
word: old
word: olden
word: past
word: preceding
word: precedent
word: previous
word: prior
word: quondam
word: sometime
word: used-to-be
word: whilom
qualifier: archaic except literary
glosses: At some time in the past; former, sometime.
synonyms: word: asleep
word: at rest
word: cadaverous
word: clay-cold
word: deceased
word: resting
word: decomposed
word: defunct
word: departed
word: expired
word: extinct
word: fey
word: gone
word: good
word: inanimate
word: inert
word: kaput
word: late
word: lifeless
word: living impaired
word: low
word: no longer with us
word: no more
word: perished
word: reposing
word: six feet deep
word: six feet under
word: stiff
word: wasted
word: whilom
word: with God
glosses: Of a person: deceased, late.