I’ve always loved the word whimsy. For some reason, those “fanciful, fantastic” ideas strike me as pure joy. (Shocking for a novelist, right?)
Interesting, though, that (in my head at least) whimsy and whimsical have good connotations, while whim can carry a more negative one. If we do something on a whim, that could carry a meaning of “caprice” as well.
All of these words, though, come from one I’d never heard of before–they’re a shortening of whimwham.
Of what? Yep. Whimwham. And what, do you ask, is that? Well, back in the 1600s, a whimwham was a fanciful object that was worn as an accessory. Not something useful, but something just meant to be eye-catching. No one’s quite sure where the word came from…but it’s certainly succeeded in creating other words from it!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
Fun to know. 😊
Thanks for sharing!
Ps. I love your books!!!
– I've read:
Culper Ring books 1 & 2, and currently reading 1.5, and A Hearts Revolution. ❤ Lovely!