Forms: 7 whige, whigh, whigue, Sc. uhig, uig, 7–8 wig(g, 8 quig, 7–9 whigg, 7– whig. [Origin unascertained; prob. shortening of whiggamer, WHIGGAMORE; the occurrence of sense 1 (if it belongs to this word) some years before the date of the ‘whiggamore raid’ points to the existence of whig in a general sense before that event.
The supposition that this word is identical with WING sb.1 (cf. the following quots.) has no historical foundation.
1717. De Foe, Mem. Ch. Scot., III. (1844), 68/2. The word is said to be taken from a mixt Drink the poor Men drank in their Wanderings compos’d of Water and sour Milk.
1721. Wodrow, Hist. Suff. Ch. Scot., II. ii. I. 263. The poor honest People, who were in Railery called Whiggs, from a Kind of Milk they were forced to drink in their Wandrings and Straits.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. v. § 10 (1740), 321. This [sc. the name Birmingham Protestants] held a considerable Time; but the word was not fluent enough for hasty Repartee; and, after diverse Changes, the Lot fell upon Whig, which was very significative, as well as ready, being vernacular in Scotland, (from whence it was borrowed) for corrupt and sour Whey. Immediately the Train took, and, upon the first Touch of the Experiment, it run like wild Fire, and became general. And so the Account of Tory was ballanced, and soon began to run up a sharp Score on the other Side.]
† 1. A yokel, country bumpkin. Obs. rare.
c. 1645. T. Tully, Siege of Carlisle (1840), 3. And needs he [sc. Leslie] would retreat to Newcastle, till great Barwise set himself first into the water; and the rest, following him, so frighted ye fresh water countrie whiggs, yt all of them answered the Motto, veni, vidi, fugi.
c. 1655. J. Gwynne, Mil. Mem. Gt. Civil War, II. (1822), 90. Most of them were no souldiers, but countrey bumkins, there called Whigs.
2. An adherent of the Presbyterian cause in Scotland in the seventeenth century; applied orig. to the Covenanters in the West of Scotland who in 1648 wrested the government from the Royalist party and marched as rebels to Edinburgh; in later years, to the extreme section of the Covenanting party who were regarded as rebels. Hist.
‘By rigid Episcopalians, it is still given to Presbyterians in general; and, in the West of S[cotland], even by the latter, to those who, in a state of separation from the established church, profess to adhere more strictly to Presbyterian principles’ (Jamieson, 1808).
1657. in Jas. Campbell, Balmerino (1867), 213. Having fallen in among the Whigs of Kilmany.
1666. Nicoll, Diary (Bannatyne Club), 452. The Generall [Dalyell] having marched towards the West, he took and killed sindrie persones, callit The Whigs.
1666. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–7 (1864), 301. Now not one [sc. of the rebels] dares call himself a Whig.
1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 121/1. We were informed that the Whigs had privately in the night stollen down the heads of 4 of the Rebels that were set up in Glasgow.
1679. Lauderdale Papers (Camden, 1885), III. 163. The Whiggs horse and foot fell in pell, mell, upon the Dragoons.
1683. Claverhouse, in Clavers, the Despot’s Champion (1889), xii. 142. I am as sorry to see a man day, even a whigue, as any of themselfs.
1684. Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm., 1903), II. 196. The bearer wil tell you the kindness the Whighs has for your lordship, which is no ill argument of your lordship’s zeal in the King’s service.
a. 1699. Kirkton, Hist. Ch. Scot. (1817), 46. This was done at the Whiggs’ Road, as was called.
1708. in Brand, Hist. Newc. (1789), I. 424, note. [In St. Andrew’s Register, November 1708, this burying-ground for dissenters is called] the Quigs buring-place.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, I. (1724), I. 43. Those in she west [of Scotland] come in the summer to buy at Lieth the stores that come from the north: And from a word Whiggam, used in driving their horses all that drove were called the Whiggamors, and shorter the Whiggs.
1875. trans. Ranke’s Hist. Eng., XVI. ix. IV. 121. Doubtless, in Scotland also, the republican tendencies appeared; for instance, in October 1680, the King and the Duke were excommunicated with due form;… These were, however, rather Anabaptist than Presbyterian views; their adherents were indeed called Whigs, but ‘wild Whigs.’
1888. M. Morris, Claverhouse, ix. 159. The men of the hill-sides and moorlands of the West, the wild Western Whigs, who feared … the name of Claverhouse.
3. Applied to the Exclusioners (c. 1679) who opposed the succession of James, Duke of York, to the crown, on the ground of his being a Roman Catholic. Hist. (Opposed to TORY A. 2.)
1679. Wood, Life (O. H. S.), II. 431. After the breaking out of the popish plot severall of our scholars were tried and at length were discovered to be whiggs, viz. … Georg Reynell of C. C. C., looked upon as alwayes a round-head.
1681. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 124. The latter party have been called by the former, whigs, fanaticks, covenanteers, bromigham protestants, &c.; and the former are called by the latter, tories, tantivies, Yorkists, high flown church men.
1682. Tories Confess., vi. What pimping Whig shall dare controule, or check the lawfull Heir.
1683. [J. Norris], Murnival of Knaves, 2. Whig and Tory … The one of Caledonian Race, T’other has an Hibernian Face.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 652. In 1678 … he closed with the Whiggs, supposing that party would carry all before them.
a. 1734. [see etymology above].
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist., xii. (1876), II. 439. If was in the year 1679 that the words Whig and Tory were first heard in their application to English factions.
1905. C. S. Terry, Pentland Rising, 84. The … controversies which cleft the Whigs in 1679, to the paralysis of serious military achievement, were absent in 1666.
b. fig. A rebel.
1682. Dryden, Another Epil. Dk. Guise, 22. When Sighs and Prayers their ladies cannot move, They rail, write Treason, and turn Whigs to love.
4. Hence, from 1689, an adherent of one of the two great parliamentary and political parties in England, and (at length) in Great Britain. (Opposed to TORY A. 3.)
Since the middle of the 19th century mostly superseded (exc. as a historical term) by Liberal (see LIBERAL A. 5, B. 1 b), but used occas. since then to express adherence to moderate or antiquated Liberal principles.
1702. Clarendon’s Hist. Reb., I. Pref. p. viii. We have lived … to see the two great Parties, of late known by the Names of Whig and Tory, directly change their ground.
1704. C. Leslie, The Wolf Stript, 82. A Whigg is a State-Enthusiast, as a Dissenter is an Ecclesiastical.
1713. Guardian, No. 1, ¶ 4. I am, with relation to the government of the Church, a Tory, with regard to the State, a Whig.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, I. (1724), I. 43. All that opposed the Court came in contempt to be called Whiggs.
1741. Hume, Ess., Parties Gt. Brit., 131. A Whig may be defin’d to be a Lover of Liberty, tho’ without renouncing Monarchy; and a Friend to the Settlement in the Protestant Line.
1778. Johnson, 28 April, in Boswell. ‘And I have always said, the first Whig was the Devil.’ Boswell. ‘He certainly was, Sir. The Devil was impatient of subordination.’
1791. Burke (title), An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, in consequence of some late discussions in Parliament, relative to the Reflections on the French Revolution.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VI. iii. ‘I look upon an Orangeman,’ said Coningsby, ‘as a pure Whig.’
1852. Ld. J. Russell, in S. Walpole, Life (1889), II. 156, note. The term Whig … has the convenience of expressing in one syllable what Conservative Liberal expresses in seven; and Whiggism, in two syllables, means what Conservative Progress means in other six.
1883. Sat. Rev., 21 July, 67/2. The Gladstonian Moderate, the ‘Whig’ as he is locally called, has ceased to have a reason for existence in Irish politics.
1911. B. Holland, Spencer Compton, II. 129. Until this moment [1886] the word ‘Whig’ was still in common use to denote a connection loosely bound together, the moderate Liberals, led by the chiefs of certain families of long standing. Since 1886, the word has been used in a purely historical sense, while ‘Tory’ has still a living meaning.
5. Amer. Hist. a. An American colonist who supported the American Revolution.
1768. New York Gaz., 14 March (title of article), The American Whig.
1768. Boston Gaz., 11 April, 3/1. On reading, in the American Mercury, an advertisement of a weekly paper to be published, under the title of A Whip for the American Whig; I could not help falling into a train of serious reflections, on the persecuting genius that inspires the high flying Tory party, in the episcopal church.
1775. Thacher, Mil. Jrnl. Amer. Rev. (1823), 12. The … majority … are united in resolution to oppose … the wicked attempts of the English Cabinet. This class of people have assumed the appellation of Whigs.
1775. Johnson, in Boswell, 21 March. When the Whigs of America are thus multiplied, let the Princes of the earth tremble in their palaces.
1812. Niles’ Weekly Reg., 6 June, 240/1. A great battle is said to have been fought about the 1st May, between the ‘whigs’ of Caracos and ‘tories’ of Coro, the latter being aided by some ‘regulars’ from Porto Rico.
1884. A. Johnston, Hist. Amer. Pol. (ed. 2), 6. As soon as independence was announced, in 1776, to be the final object of the contest, the names Whig and Tory lost, in America, whatever of British significance they had ever possessed.
b. A member of a party formed in 1834 from a fusion of the National Republicans and other elements opposed to the Democrats; it favored a protective tariff and a strong national or central government, and was succeeded in 1856 by the Republican party. (See quot. 1905.)
1834. Niles’ Weekly Reg., 12 April, 101/2. In New York and Connecticut the term ‘whigs’ is now used by the opponents of the administration when speaking of themselves, and they call the ‘Jackson men’ by the offensive name of ‘tories.’
1839. Congress. Globe, Jan., App. 105/1. In 1796,… Whig … was synonymous with Democrat,… or, in the Federal language of the times, was fit for the common people;… but now for political effect, the same party have taken the term Whig to themselves.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. liii. II. 340. The majesty and beneficent activity of the National government … was generally in fact represented by the Federalists of the first period, the Whigs of the second, the Republicans of the third.
1905. A. Johnston’s Amer. Pol. Hist., II. 239. His [sc. James Watson Webb’s] newspaper, the Courier and Enquirer, had originally supported Jackson, and had been driven into the opposition by the President’s course. In February, 1834, he baptized the new party with the name of ‘Whig,’ with the idea that the name implied resistance to executive usurpation, to that of the Crown in England and in the American Revolution, and to that of the President in the United States of 1834.
B. adj. That is a Whig; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Whig or Whigs: holding the opinions or principles of a Whig.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 32 (1713), I. 205. Oh there’s a thick Disguise they say upon Affairs, and unless you have a pair of Whig-spectacles, there’s no seeing through it.
1683. Dryden, Vind. Dk. Guise, 22. As for Knave, and Sycophant, and Rascal, and Impudent, and Devil, and old Serpent,… I take them to be only names of Parties: And cou’d return Murtherer and Cheat, and Whig-napper.
1683. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 279. Commenting on several proceedings of those called the whig party.
1719. T. Gordon, Char. Indep. Whig (ed. 2), 19. Let them not … give up Whig Boroughs into Jacobite Hands.
1732. P. Walker, Cargill, in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827), II. 100. They said ‘Take up the old damn’d Whig-Bitch.’
1768. Boston Gaz., 21 March, 3/1. May the best of Heaven’s Blessings ever attend the Whig Cause.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., x. Free and safe as a whig bailie on the causeway of his own borough, or a canting presbyterian minister in his own pulpit.
1837. Syd. Smith, Let. Archd. Singleton, Wks. 1859, II. 276/2. Lord John Russell, the Whig leader.
1839. Whittier, Pr. Wks. (1889), II. 323. The late Whig defeat in New York.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. liii. II. 333. The other section, which called itself at first the National Republican, ultimately the Whig party.
1912. G. O. Trevelyan, Geo. III. & Fox, I. 292. A rallying point for the hardy Whig militiamen of the Carolinas.
C. Comb., as Whig-Radical sb. and adj.; Whig-defeating, -hunting adjs.; † Whigland (obs. slang), the land of Whigs, esp. Scotland; hence † Whiglander, a native or inhabitant of ‘Whigland.’
1682. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 65 (1713), II. 152. A Cause-confounding, *Whig-defeating … Dispensation.
1905. C. S. Terry, Pentland Rising, 2. The familiar *Whig-hunting duty of Claverhouse.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 45 (1713), II. 39. The Territories of *Whiggland.
1683. [J. Norris], Murnival of Knaves, 16. Patron of all Dissenters, and The Demogorgon of Whigland.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Whig-land, Scotland.
1682. Ballad, Happy Ret. Old Dutch Miller, i. I am so Zealous for *Whiglanders Crew, I’l cure their Distempers with one Turn or Two.
1820. J. Rickman, Extr. Life & Lett., 10 Feb., 215. The address of the Yorkshire *Whig Radicals.
Hence (mostly humorous or contemptuous nonce-wds.) Whiggarchy [Gr. ἀρχή rule], government by Whigs; Whiggess, a female Whig; Whiggify v., trans. to make Whig or whiggish (so Whiggification); Whiggissimi [jocular f. with L. superl. ending], extreme or absolute Whigs; Whiggize v., intr. to act like a Whig, play the Whig; whiggological a., relating to Whig principles; Whiglet, Whigling, a small or petty Whig (also attrib.); Whigocracy [-CRACY], government by Whigs; concr. a body of Whig rulers; Whigship, the personality or quality of a Whig; † Whigster [-STER], a contemptuous appellation for a Whig.
1712–3. Swift, App. to Cond. Allies, Wks. 1841, I. 437/1. That they will not recognize any other government in Great Britain but *Whiggarchy only.
1776. Pennsylvania Even. Post, 2 Jan., 3/2. A reasonable *Whiggess scorns all implicit faith in the state as well as the church.
1839. Lady Lytton, Cheveley, v. Whigesses always make their ‘début’ later than other girls.
1832. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 387. We were all along against the *whiggification of the Tory System.
1682. ‘Philanax Misopappas,’ Tory Plot, II. 3. If he preach up nothing but Hell and Heaven, and a good Life,… D - - - me, says he, this Fellow’s *Whiggefi’d.
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XI. 364. They may aid … in whiggifying some of the propositions of the government.
1841. Tait’s Mag., VIII. 484. A whiggified Radical is a jobber.
1725. Swift, Lett. to Sheridan, 25 Sept. Because they are above suspicions, as *Whiggissimi and Unsuspectissimi.
1832. J. Rickman, Extr. Life & Lett., 18 April, 294. Whigs, Whiggamores, Whiggissimi.
1832. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 708. I don’t like a Whig … but … I have even less affection for a *Whiggizing Tory.
1817. Q. Rev., Oct., 135. Mr. Bentham will no doubt be thankful for so striking an illustration of his *whiggological theories.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 36 (1713), I. 232. Some tolerable Reasons why the little *Whiglets engag’d themselves in such an Affair.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 221. You have made some of the Radicals and Whiglets, both of Edinburgh and Glasgow, feel. Ibid., 3. Tears of joy and gratitude at beholding the *whiglings placed so near his Majesty’s seat of honour.
1834. Oxf. Univ. Mag., I. 41. The carping jibes of Whigling envy.
1883. J. Wilson, Ess. Hist. & Biogr., xvi. 289. The whole breed of Radicals, and Whiglings, and Cockneys.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIII. 568. Any of the *Whigocracy.
a. 1796. Burns, Stanzas on Naething, 37. Her *whigship was wonderful pleased.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Johnson & John Horne (Tooke), Wks. I. 166/1. People of your cast in politics are fond of vilifying our country: Is this your whigship?
1683. Romulus & Hersilia, Prol. Now I dare swear, some of you *Whigsters say, Come on, now for a swinging Tory Play.
