different between when vs awhile

English

Alternative forms

• wen (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English when(ne), whanne, from Old English hwenne, hwænne, hwonne (“when”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?is (“interrogative base”).

Cognate with Dutch wanneer (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic ???????????? (?an, “when, how”), Latin quand? (“when”). More at who.

Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: hw?n, w?n, IPA^(key): /??n/, /w?n/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /??n/, /w?n/
• (Ireland, Scotland) enPR: hw?n, IPA^(key): /??n/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: w?n, IPA^(key): /w?n/
• (in accents without the wine–whine merger)
• (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
• (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
• Rhymes: -?n
• Homophone: wen (in accents with the wine-whine merger), win (in accents with the wine–whine merger and the pin–pen merger)

Adverb

when (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time.
   • 1834, Samuel Kirkham, English Grammar in Familiar Lectures, page 117:

     What words are used as interrogative pronouns? — Give examples.

     When are the words, what, which, and that, called adj. pron.?

     When are they called interrogative pronominal adjectives?

2. At an earlier time and under different, usually less favorable, circumstances.

3. (relative) At which, on which, during which: often omitted or replaced with that.

Translations

Conjunction

when

1. At (or as soon as) that time that; at the (or any and every) time that; if.
2. During the time that; at the time of the action of the following clause or participle phrase.
3. At what time; at which time.
   • 1839, John Donne, The Works of John Donne: Sermons, Letters, Poems, page 310:

     I am at London only to provide for Monday, when I shall use that favour which my Lady Bedford hath afforded me, of giving her name to my daughter; which I mention to you, […]

   • 1929, Donald John Munro, The Roaring Forties and After (page 38)

     He sat at the door of his kitchen watching, and seeing there was nothing else for it we buckled to and soon had the job done; when we were admitted to the kitchen and given a really good meal.

4. Since; given the fact that; considering that.

5. Whereas; although; at the same time as; in spite of the fact that.

Synonyms

• (as soon as): as soon as, immediately, once
• (every time that): whenever
• (during the time that): while, whilst; see also Thesaurus:while
• (at any time that): whenever
• (at which time):
• (given the fact that): given that, seeing that; see also Thesaurus:because
• (in spite of the fact that): but, where, whereas

Derived terms

• know someone when
• whenwe

Translations

Pronoun

when

1. (interrogative) What time; which time.
   • 1831 (published), John Davies, Orchestra Or, a Poem of Dancing, in Robert Southey, Select Works of the British Poets: From Chaucer to Jonson, with Biographical Sketches, page 706:

     Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse

     A great deep cup with heav'nly nectar fill'd,

     The greatest, deepest cup in Jove's great house,

     (For Jove himself had so expressly will'd)

     He drank off all, nor let one drop be spill'd;

     Since when, his brain that had before been dry,

     Became the well-spring of all poetry.

   • 1833, William Potts Dewees, A Treatise on the Diseases of Females, page 495:

     [This] we imagined might have been owing to some accidental condition of the system, or perhaps idiosyncracy; this led us to a second trial, but we experienced the same inconveniences, since when, we have altogether abandoned their use.

   • 2012, Emile Letournel, Robert Judet, Fractures of the Acetabulum, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 385:

     So we combined the Kocher-Langenbeck and iliofemoral approach until 1965, since when we have combined the ilioinguinal and Kocher-Langenbeck approaches.

2. The time that.

Translations

Noun

when (plural whens)

1. The time at which something happens.
   • 2008, Paolo Aite, Lanscapes of the Psyche, Ipoc Press (?ISBN), page 151:

     For the moment, suffice it to say that the stories told through the whens and hows of building a scene differentiate individual desires and needs more clearly than shared speech was up to then able to communicate.

Translations

Interjection

when

1. (often humorous) That's enough, a command to stop adding something, especially an ingredient of food or drink -- referring to say when.
2. (obsolete) Expressing impatience. (Compare what.)
   • c. 1600, Sir John Oldcastle, iv. 1:

     Set, parson, set; the dice die in my hand.

     When, parson, when! what, can you find no more?

   • c. 1615-1657, Thomas Middleton, More Dissemblers Besides Women, volume 1:

     Why, when? begin, sir: I must stay your leisure.

Translations

Derived terms

• whenever

See also

• since when

References

• when at OneLook Dictionary Search
• when in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• hewn

Middle English

Etymology 1

Adverb

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Conjunction

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Etymology 2

Verb

when

1. Alternative form of winnen (“to win”)

English

Etymology

Old English ane (“(for) a”) hwile (“while”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??wa?l/, /??hwa?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Adverb

awhile (not comparable)

1. For some time; for a short time.
2. (US, Pennsylvania Dutch English) In the meantime; during an implicit ongoing process.

Usage notes

Awhile as means “for a while” is often considered incorrect to use with a preceding preposition, since one is already supposed: instead of “for awhile”, one should prefer either “for a while” or simply “awhile”. However, “awhile” as object for a preposition is used by renowned writers, is allowed by Merriam-Webster, and is consistent with how other adverbs of time and place are employed.

In Pennsylvania Dutch English, awhile is typically always used to convey such sense; the word is separated as “a while” for the first sense, whether preceded by a preposition or not. Compare “You may sit awhile” (inviting a person to sit while they are waiting) and “You may sit a while” (inviting them to sit for a length of time).

Synonyms

• (for some time): for a minute, momentarily; see also Thesaurus:temporarily
• (in the meantime): for the moment, meanwhile, meanwhilst, the while

Related terms

• while

Translations