''whilom'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''whilom'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904120411-00-⌔

whilom - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adverb

whilom (not comparable)

• (archaic except literary) At some time in the past; formerly, once upon a time.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: formerly
  • ✤ * Whilom, as olde stories tellen us […]*¹
  • ✤ Lo I the man, vvhoſe Muſe vvhilome did maske,
    As time her taught, in lowly Sheapards vveeds,
    Am novv enforſt a far unfitter taske, […]²
  • ✤ VVith ſuch an invention [a sumptuary law] did Zelevcus vvhilome correct the corrupted maners of the Locrines.³
  • ✤ In Northern Clime a valorous Knight
    Did whilom kill his Bear in fight,
    And wound a Fidler: we have both
    Of these the objects of our Wroth
    And equal Fame and Glory from
    Th’ Attempt or Victory to come.⁴
  • ✤ My vvarbling Lute, the Lute I vvhilom ſtrung
    VVhen to King John of Portugal I ſung,
    VVas but the Prelude to that glorious Day,
    VVhen thou on Silver Thames did’ſt cut thy vvay,
    VVith vvell-tim’d Oars before the Royal Barge,
    Svvell’d vvith the Pride of thy Celeſtial charge; […]⁵
  • ✤ The Squire himſelf novv ſallied forth, and begun to roar forth the Name of Sophia loudly, and in as hoarſe a Voice, as vvhileom did Hercules that of Hylas: […]⁶
  • ✤ They who whilome, in midnight fight,
    Had marvelled at her matchless might,
    No less her maiden charms approved,
    But looking liked, and liking loved.⁷
  • ✤ Holding it [the skull of a hare] in the hand the shadow falls into and darkens the cavities once filled by the wistful eyes which whilom glanced down from the summit here upon the sweet clover fields beneath.⁸
• (obsolete)
  • At times, on occasion, sometimes.
    • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: occasionally
    • ✤ Wald ze be lov’d, this lessone mon ze leir;
      Flie vhylome Love, and it will folou thee.⁹
  • (rare) Preceded byof or this: for some time that has passed.
    • ✤ This money I do give ye, becauſe of vvhilom
      You have bin thought my ſonne, and by myſelfe too, […]¹⁰

Adjective

whilom (not comparable)

• (archaic except literary) At some time in the past; former, sometime.
  • ✤ Synonyms: erstwhile, quondam; see also Thesaurus: former
  • ✤ On the same day, two notable Female Prisoners are also put in ward there: Dame Dubarry and Josephine Beauharnais! Dame whilom Countess Dubarry, Unfortunate-female, had returned from London; they snatched her, not only as Ex-harlot of a whilom Majesty, and therefore suspect; but as having ‘furnished the Emigrants with money.’¹¹
  • ✤ The play must have appeared during the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, and must have been fresh in men’s memory, when, as Plutarch tells us (Life of Lysander, c. 15), the deliberations about the fate of conquered Athens were determined by a Phocian actor singing the opening monody, which moved all to pity by its picture of a whilom princess reduced to miserable poverty.¹²
  • ✤ [S]he was expecting to be joined there by no such pale fellow-adventurer as her whilom uncle.¹³
• (obsolete) Of a person: deceased, late.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: dead

Conjunction

whilom (archaic except UK, dialectal and literary)

• During the same time that; while.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: while
  • ✤ Subjects their King, the King his Subjects greets,
    VVhilome the Scepter and the Plough-ſtaffe meets.¹⁴
• Up to the time that; till, until.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: until

Etymology

From Middle English whilom (“(adverb) at one time, formerly, once; once upon a time; at times, sometimes; at a future time; (conjunction) while”) [and other forms],¹⁵ from Old English hwīlum, hwīlan, hwīlon (“at one time, once; sometimes”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡hwīlum, the dative plural of ﹡hwīlu (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”),¹⁶ from Proto-Germanic ﹡hwīlō (“period of time, time, while; period of rest, pause”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”).

The Oxford English Dictionary regards adverb sense 2.2 (“for some time that has passed”) as “aberrant”.¹⁶

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈwaɪləm/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /ˈwaɪləm/, /ˈʍaɪ-/
• Rhymes: -aɪləm
• Hyphenation: whil‧om

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. a. 1394, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knight’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales ‎${}^{[1]}$, line 859: ↩

2. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1: ↩

3. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Sumptuarie Lawes, or Lawes for Moderating of Expences”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 145: ↩

4. 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 26: ↩

5. c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 4: ↩

6. 1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the History Goes Backward”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, pages 66–67: ↩

7. 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Fifth: To George Ellis, Esq.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 231: ↩

8. 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Downs—The Entrenchment—Ways of Larks. Hares—A Combat—Happiness of Animals. Ants—A Long Journey.”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 10: ↩

9. a. 1599 (date written), Alexander Montgomery [i.e., Alexander Montgomerie], “An Admonitioun to Zoung Lassis”, in David Irving, editor, The Poems of Alexander Montgomery: […], Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for W[illiam] and C[harles] Tait, […], published 1821, →OCLC, page 222: ↩

10. 1610–1616 (date written), Iohn [i.e., John] Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1639, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, signature I2, verso: ↩

11. 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Death”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 290: ↩

12. 1879, J[ohn] P[entland] Mahaffy, “His Plots”, in John Richard Green, editor, Euripides (Classical Writers), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, paragraph 43, page 60: ↩

13. 1909, Henry James, “Mora Montravers. Chapter V.”, in The Finer Grain, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published October 1910, →OCLC, page 99: ↩

14. 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 77: ↩

15. “whīlom, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

16. Compare “whilom, adv. (and adj.) and conj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “whilom, adv. and adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩ ↩²

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