W

the 23rd letter of the modern English alphabet, is an addition to the ancient Roman alphabet, having originated from a ligatured doubling of the Roman letter represented by the U and V of modern alphabets. When, in the 7th c., the Latin alphabet was first applied to the writing of English, it became necessary to provide a symbol for the sound (W), which did not exist in contemporary Latin. This sound, a gutturally modified bilabial voiced spirant, is acoustically almost identical with the devocalized (u) or (u), which was the sound originally expressed by the Roman U or V as a consonant-symbol; but before the 7th c. this Latin sound had developed into (V). The single u or v therefore could not without ambiguity be used to represent (W), though this was occasionally done, and in some Northumbrian texts was the regular practice. The ordinary sign for (W) was at first uu, but in the 8th c. this began to be superseded by Þ, a character borrowed from the Runic alphabet, in which its name was wyn (Kentish wen). Eventually the use of Þ became almost universal, but in the mean time the uu was carried from England to the continent, being used for the sound (W) in the German dialects, and in French proper names and other words of Teut. and Celtic origin. In the 11th c. the ligatured form was introduced into England by Norman scribes, and gradually took the place of Þ, which finally went out of use about A.D. 1300. The character W was probably very early regarded as a single letter, although it has never lost its original name of ‘double U.’

  In OE. the sound (W) occurred initially not only before vowels but also before (l) and (r). The combination wl became obsolete in the 15th c. (in Sc. poetry wlonk, alliterating with w- words, was used in the 16th c.); wr is still written, but the w is silent in standard English, though in some dialects it is sounded as (W) or as (V). OE. had also the initial combination (hw), written hu(u, hÞ, and subsequently Þh, wh; for the later development of this phonetic combination, and the history of the associated symbols, see WH.

  The chief etymological sources of the Eng. (W) are: (1) OE. (W), mainly representing Indogermanic w, gh^w, kw, or k^w; (2) ON. (W) of the same origin (in cited words expressed by v, according to Icelandic usage); (3) OF. (W), retained in northeastern Fr. dialects, but elsewhere becoming (gw) and ultimately (g), whence in English such doublets as wage and gage, warranty and guaranty. The sound also occurs, represented otherwise than by w, in words of Latin origin containing the combinations qu (kw) and su (sw), as question, suavity, persuade (in 16–18th c. often written with sw); also in a few Fr. words, as reservoir.

  So far as it remains a consonant-symbol, the letter never denotes any other sound than (W), but in a few words it has ceased to be pronounced, though still written, as in answer, sword, two, and in the combination wr referred to above. In the unstressed second element of a compound, (W) tends to be elided in colloquial speech. This contracted pronunciation is in some words a mere vulgarism (marked as such by spellings like back’ard, forrard, allus for always); in Norwich and some other place-names in -wich it is the only one regarded as correct, and the same may be said with regard to the nautical term gunwale; in midwife the contraction, formerly general, is now rarely heard. The tendency to elision of w beginning an unstressed second syllable is shown also in the change of housewife into huzzif, huzzy, where the spelling has followed the pronunciation, though the uncontracted form is now restored exc. in a special disparaging sense.

  In some ME. MSS. (northern and north midland), and in many Scottish texts of the 15th and 16th centuries, w is written for v, and vice versa. In the 16th and 17th c., books printed from continental type often have the letter in the divided form VV, vv.

  In ME. a new (W) arose from the development of intervocalic or final (γ), inherited from OE., as in bowe:—earlier boȝe:—OE. boʓa. This sound, however, has not survived as a consonant, because every (W) after a stressed vowel became a u-glide, the terminal element of a diphthong. From the early ME. period w was often substituted for u in vowel-digraphs (whether denoting diphthongs or simple vowels). In modern spelling aw, ew, ow are phonetically equivalent to au, eu, ou, though ow never stands for (ū), as in the older yow = you (except in the surname Cowper); the choice between u and w has been determined to some extent by etymological tradition, but is mainly arbitrary; at the end of a word w, not u, is used all but invariably. The traditional statement of grammarians that ‘W is a vowel as well as a consonant’ refers to its use in these digraphs; but in the 14–15th c., and in Sc. also in the 16th c., w occasionally represents (ū), as in trw = true, swne = soon, swth = sooth.

  In south-eastern dialects (W) is regularly substituted for (V), and many writers of the first half of the 19th c. attribute to the Cockney dialect the habit of misusing (V) for (W) and (W) for (V) on all occasions. No trace of this survives in present-day London speech; and although there is no doubt that the Kentish (W) for (V) at one time extended to London, it is probable that the reverse substitution was merely an occasional (if perhaps rather frequent) result of the endeavor to speak correctly.

1763.  Foote, Mayor of G., I. (1764), 21. Sneak. Yes, werry like Wenus.

1803.  Pegge, Anecd. Engl. Lang. (1814), 77. The … most offensive error in pronunciation among the Londoners … lies in the transpositional use of the letters W and V, ever to be heard where there is any possibility of inverting them. Thus they always say, Weal, instead of veal; and Winegar, instead of vinegar; while, on the other hand, you hear Vicked, for wicked—Vig, for wig; and a few others.

1805.  T. Harral, Scenes of Life, III. 26. ‘Last night thou gavest me to a willain’s arms!’—‘A villain?’… ‘Ay, a willain!’

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxiv. ‘Do you spell it [Weller] with a V or a W?’… ‘I spells it with a V.’… ‘Quite right too, Samivel…. Put it down a we, my lord.’

1844.  T. H. Key, Alphabet, 107. London too is remarkable for the confusion of the sounds, though this confusion does not seem to arise from any inability to pronounce either a w or a v, each being substituted for the other with a most amusing perversity.

  A mispronunciation of (W) for (r), in some persons due to a physical defect, has sometimes been a fashionable affectation.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxv. ‘Gwacious heavens!’ said his lordship. ‘I thought evewebody had seen the new mail-cart, it’s the neatest, pwettiest, gwacefullest thing that ever wan.’

1844.  T. H. Key, Alphabet, 93. The letter r is at times confounded with w. Thus it is not a very rare variety of articulation that rubbish is pronounced wubbish.

  1.  The letter, its sound or name.

c. 1465.  in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 2. A Doble W. for Warwike, þat god be his gide.

1552.  Huloet, Kk ij b. Because there is a diuersitie betwene the single V and the dowble W, therfore the alphabet of them shalbe set diuersly. [The sequence is: Va, Wa, Vd.]

1580.  W. Bullokar, Bk. at large, 8. W. I account also misnamed to call it double : v : for then shoulde we sounde it : v : v : but his sounde agreeth to the olde name of : y : (which is wy).

c. 1595.  R. Carew, in G. G. Smith, Elizab. Crit. Ess. (1904), II. 286. For letters, wee haue Q. more then the Greekes; K. and Y. more then the Latynes; and W. more then them both, or the French and Italians.

1599.  Thynne, Animadv. (1875), 65. The latyne, Italiane, frenche, and spanyshe haue no doble W.

a. 1637.  B. Jonson, Engl. Gram., iii. (1640), 40. W, Is but the V. geminated in the full sound, and though it have the seate of a Consonant with us, the power is alwayes Vowellish, even where it leades the Vowell in any Syllabe: as if you marke it, pronounce the two uu. like 8. quicke in passage and these words: 8-ine. 8-ant. 8-ood. 8-ast. ∫8-ing. ∫8-am. Will sound wine. want. wood. wast. swing. swam.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, Ded. (e) 1. [In the English Aeneis] where a Vowel ends a word, the next begins either with a Consonant, or what is its equivalent; for our W and H aspirate … are plainly such.

1704.  Expert Orthographist, in A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iii. (1869), 160. All polysyllables ending in obscure o have w added for ornament’s sake as arrow, bellows, &c.

1796.  Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 454. One would wonder how the w could ever come to be a letter in our language, for it is plainly nothing else but the u vowel; for … uill spells will, as much as will.

1836.  Caroline B. Southey, Birthday, I. 37, Poet. Wks. (1867), 21.

1869.  A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iii. 187. In Europe (w) is thought to be peculiar to England.… In Arabic however (w) is quite at home.

a. 1890.  W. B. Scott, Autob. (1892), I. ii. 29. He only excited our mirth when he went over the letters, giving them the broad old Scotch pronunciation: A was awe, B was bay, C was say, and so on, ending with U sounded like oo in good, W as duploo, Z as izzid.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 449, note. The voiceless W and the voiceless L have been given above within brackets, the former being now almost confined to Scotland and the latter being peculiar to Wales.

  2.  The letter considered with regard to its shape. Also attrib.

1798.  Hull Advertiser, 28 July, 2/1. Chairs in sets … with W, tableau and X backs.

1871.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., I. 266. The molars show sharp tubercles separated by transverse furrows, generally producing a sort of W-like pattern on each tooth.

1882.  Floyer, Unexpl. Balūchistan, 17. The walls … are … rendered ornamental by triangular recesses fitting one into another like an endless W, each triangle being filled up with lines of smaller W’s.

  3.  Abbreviations. W. = various personal names, as William, Walter, Winifred; † W. (Calendar) Whitsunday; W. = West (W.N.W. west-north-west, W.S.W. west-south-west; W.C. the West Central postal district of London); W (Chem.) tungsten (mod.L. wolframium); W (Electr.) watt; W.C. = water-closet; W.I. = West Indies; W.S. (Scotland) = Writer to the Signet.

1513.  Sir E. Howard, in Lett. & Papers War France (1897), 94. The wynd feeryd owt off the W.N.W. into the E.N.E.

c. 1565.  Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), Calendar l 2 b. Ye shal finde … at the 29. of April this letter W where begine for Whitsonday.

1708.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4422/7. We came to an Anchor about Noon, the Wind at W. by S.

1778.  Engl. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Fale, It rises about 2 miles W. of Roche Hills.

1815.  Corr. W. Fowler (1907), 330. Apparatus for W.C. at Normanby, which had to come from London.

a. 1874.  R. Chambers, in Casq. Lit., Ser. II. I. 262/1. Served a regular apprenticeship to a double-you-ess.

1891.  W. Clark Russell, Marriage at Sea, v, The … compass was about W. S. W.

1892.  T. B. F. Eminson, Epidemic Pneumonia at Scotter, 11. No W.C. or slaughter-house drains into them.