English
wholesome
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.

Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈholsəm/
Adjective

wholesome

  1. Promoting good physical health and well-being.
    • 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:
      I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt, / I care not what, ſo it be holſome foode.
  2. Promoting moral and mental well-being.
  3. Favourable to morals, religion or prosperity; sensible; conducive to good; salutary; promoting virtue or being virtuous.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Proverbs 15:4 ↗, column 1:
      A wholeſome tongue is a tree of life: but peruerſneſſe therein is a breach in the ſpirit.
  4. Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.
  5. Decent; innocuous; sweet.
    • 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:
      Sometimes vvhite Lyllies did their Leaves afford, / VVith vvholſom Polly-flovv'rs, to mend his homely Board: […]
    • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC ↗, page 171 ↗:
      The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.
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