Wholesome

a. (sb.) Forms: see WHOLE; also 4–6 (with normal shortening) holsum, -som, 6–8 wholsom(e. (For north. dial. and Sc. forms see HALESOME) [OE. *hálsum, corresp. to OS. *hêlsam (implied in adv. hêlsamo), MLG. heilsam, Du. heilzaam salutary (dial. = healthy), OHG. (MHG., G.) heilsam, ON. heilsamr: see WHOLE a. and -SOME suffix¹. The northern form (reinforced from ON.) is represented by HALESOME.]

  1.  Conducive to well-being in general, esp. of mind or character; mentally or morally healthful; tending or calculated to do good; beneficial, salutary.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 111. Ȝif du luuest ðine aȝene wille alre mast, þanne is ðe swiðe holsum ðat ðu þis ofri ðine louerde god.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 103. Þenne riseð ure helend on his heorte, and techeð him holsum lore.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Tim. vi. 3. The … holsum wordis of oure Lord Jhesu Crist.

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, IV. xxiii. (MS. Bodl. 263), 252/2. It is nat holsum with goddis to pleie.

1535.  Starkey, Lett., in England (1878), p. xvii. Holsome ceremonys of the church.

1566.  Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, I. 22. It is manifeste … that we … do celebrate the memoriall of that One and holsome Sacrifice.

1600.  Marston, etc., Jack Drum’s Entert., I. (1601), A 4 b. So great a masse of coyne might mount from wholsome thrift.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., II. iii. 66. You’l marre all … Pray you speake to em … In wholsome manner.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 695. A good example of wholsome severity.

1632.  Brome, North. Lasse, I. iv. They are wholsomer company.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 10, ¶ 5. I will daily instil into them such sound and wholsome Sentiments, as shall have a good Effect on their Conversation.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, I. vi. Wholesome Admonition and Reproof.

1824.  Southey, Lett. to G. C. Bedford, 24 May. To enjoy better air, keep better hours, and employ herself in quieter and wholesomer pleasures.

1839.  Thirlwall, Greece, xlvii. VI. 117. Thebes was destroyed … that the example of its fare might strike the rest of Greece with a wholesome awe.

1879.  Froude, Cæsar, ii. 12. The sober and wholesome manners of life among the early Romans had given them vigorous minds in vigorous bodies.

1892.  Kipling, Lett. Trav. (1920), 62. It is wholesome and tonic to realise the powerlessness of man in the face of these little accidents.

  2.  Promoting or conducive to health; favorable to or good for health; health-giving or health-preserving: salubrious.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, I. 910. Þilke ground þat bereth þe wedys wykke, Bereth eke þese holsome herbes.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. xi. (Bodl. MS.). Marche water is not full holsom to drinke.

c. 1400.  Beryn, 2877. It is holsom to breke our fast be-tyme.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. ii. 58. No holsome, ne lusty fruyte, but bytter and vnsauoury.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Compl. Bl. Knt., 14. To take the holsome lusty eyre.

1528.  Lyndesay, Dreme, 96. O fair Phebus, quhare is thy hoilsum heit?

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 48 b. Abrecuckes … are lesse then the other peches and are holsummer for the stomack.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, V. xvii. 457. The Ayre is not very holesome, by reason of the situation vnder the Line, and the multitude of Lakes and Riuers.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 847. The still Night, not now … Wholsom and cool, and mild.

1726.  Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 103/1. Flat ceilings are wholesomer.

1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 230. Wholsome weeds, that their rich fields abound with.

1819.  Keats, Eve of St. Mark, 5. The city streets were clean and fair From wholesome drench of April rains.

1849.  Claridge, Cold Water Cure, 203. By this means the stable was rendered wholesome, and the horses … continued healthy.

1891.  Leeds Merc., 2 May, 6/5. Old spirits are more wholesome than the new, which are far more irritating to the stomach.

  † b.  Having the property of restoring health; remedial, curative, medicinal. Obs. (or merged in prec. sense).

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 27. Resseyvynge holsum medicyns of her hevenly lechis.

1484.  Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. ix. That fayr skynne which is so holsome, ye shalle make hit to be … bound vpon your bely, and … hit shalle rendre you in as good helthe as euer ye were.

1557.  Turner (title), A Booke of the Bath of Baeth … with diverse other bathes moste holsom and effectual.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., V. i. 104.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxii. 195. Wholsome pills for the sick.

  3.  Sound in (physical or moral) condition or constitution; free from disease or taint; healthy. Now rare, or associated with other senses.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., x. (1535), F j b. He hated delicate and gay nurses, and they that were laborous homely and holsome he loued.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. v. 70. It doth … curd … The thin and wholesome blood. Ibid., III. ii. 271. Thy naturall magicke, and dire propertie, One wholesome life vsurps immediately.

1614.  B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. v. Vrs. I, I, Gamesters, mocke a plaine plumpe soft wench … because she’s iuicy and wholesome.

1653.  Jer. Taylor, Serm., iii. (L.). It is not to be expected that a diseased father should beget wholesome children.

1820.  Shelley, Œd. Tyr., I. 85. He has not half an inch of wholesome fat Upon his carious ribs.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, ii. A plump rosy-cheeked wholesome apple-faced young woman.

1851.  Hawthorne, Ho. Seven Gables, ix. The purifying influence scattered … by the presence of one youthful, fresh, and thoroughly wholesome heart.

1896.  Housman, Shropsh. Lad, xxiv. Ere the wholesome flesh decay.

  Comb.  1905.  Sladen, Playing the Game, I. xi. An unusually wholesome-natured woman.

  b.  transf. of a quality, condition, place, etc. (often approaching sense 1).

1604.  Shaks., Oth., III. i. 49. In wholsome Wisedome He might not but refuse you. Ibid. (1605), Macb., IV. iii. 105. O Nation miserable!… When shalt thou see thy wholsome dayes againe?

1641.  in Rogers, Protests of Lords (1875), I. 5. Such as shall disturb wholesome order.

1871.  R. H. Hutton, Ess., II. 63. A wholesome busy city like Manchester.

  c.  Naut. Of a ship (see quots.); transf. of the sea.

1627.  Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., xi. 52. A Ship that will try, hull, and ride well at Anchor, we call a wholsome Ship. Ibid. This makes her wholsome in the Sea without rowling.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. 17. The Top-mast being aloft the Ship is the holsomest, and maketh better way through the Sea.

1762.  Elsdale’s Narr. (MS.). The long continuance of the Gale had rais’d a most mountainous sea, but it was remarkably long and wholsome.

  B.  as sb. in pl. Wholesome things.

  In first quot. in a canting use (? suggested by fulsome).

1731–8.  Swift, Pol. Conversat., 158. Bring me a Dram after my Goose; ’tis very good for the Wholsoms.

1858.  Brit. Q. Rev., LVI. 358. To provide … tables of the wholesomnes and unwholesomes.

1863.  ‘Holme Lee,’ A. Warleigh, III. iii. Steer clear of novels before Miss Austen and Scott; you would like me to make you out a list of amusing wholesomes, I will do it.