wholesome – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of wholesome

Adjective: wholesome

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativewholesomer
Superlativewholesomest

Perifrastic

Comparativemore wholesome
Superlativemost wholesome

Sample Sentences

  • I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt,
  • I care not what, ſo it be holſome foode. [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:]
  • Everything we do is so wholesome. [1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn):]
  • 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. [1750, “Theodora”, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music):]
  • A wholeſome tongue is a tree of life: but peruerſneſſe therein is a breach in the ſpirit. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 15:4, column 1:]
  • Sometimes white Lyllies did their Leaves afford,
  • With wholſom Polly-flow'rs, to mend his homely Board: […] [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:]
  • The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face. [1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:]
  • 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 [2017 April 13, Mitchy Collins, Samantha Derosa, Christian Medice, “Broken”, in Finding It Hard to Smile, performed by Lovelytheband:]
  • Around the same time, “wholesome” memes of cute doggos and puppers rejuvenated social media feeds that seemed daily filled with fresh horrors. [2019, Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Riverhead Books, →ISBN:]
  • The comment section on a recent post making fun of a “cute” and “wholesome” Doomer Girl meme is mixed. [2020 February 3, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Misogynistic Joke That Became a Goth-Meme Fairy Tale”, in The Atlantic:]

Adjectives inflected like wholesome

serene, severe, secure, sedate, wheelie, simple, complete, fulsome, sprightlie, discrete, plosive, bizarre, brusque, brittle, wholesome, sincere, shystie, loveable, prophane, terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

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”). See: Dutch Adjectives 'heilzaam', German Adjectives 'heilsam', Swedish Adjectives 'hälsosam'.

Verbs referencing "wholesome"

Dutch Adjectives heilzaam, German Adjectives heilsam.