different between whole vs merismus

English

Alternative forms

• hole (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English h?l (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”) (compare West Frisian hiel, Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hel, Norwegian Nynorsk heil), from Proto-Indo-European *kóylos (“healthy, whole”). Compare Welsh coel (“omen”), Breton kel (“omen, mention”), Old Prussian kails (“healthy”), Old Church Slavonic ???? (c?l?, “healthy, unhurt”). Related to hale, health, hail, hallow, heal, and holy.

The spelling with wh-, introduced in the 15th century, was for disambiguation with hole, and was absent in Scots.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /h??l/, [h???], [h???]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ho?l/, [ho??]
• Homophone: hole
• Rhymes: -??l

Adjective

whole (comparative wholer or more whole, superlative wholest or most whole)

1. Entire, undivided.

   Synonyms: total; see also Thesaurus:entire

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
   1. Used as an intensifier.

      I brought a whole lot of balloons for the party.   She ate a whole bunch of french fries.

      • 2016, Rae Carson, Like a River Glorious, HarperCollins (?ISBN):

        There, a huge blue heron stands sentry like a statue, eye on the surface, waiting for his next meal to wriggle by. A lone grassy hill overlooks it all, well above the flood line, big enough to pitch a whole mess of tents [on].

      • 2011, Keith Maillard, Looking Good: Difficulty at the Beginning, Brindle and Glass (?ISBN):

        I'm thinking, thanks a whole fuck of a lot, Robert. You could have laid that on me weeks ago.

2. Sound, uninjured, healthy.

   Synonyms: hale, well; see also Thesaurus:healthy

   • 1939, Alfred Edward Housman, Additional Poems, X, lines 5-6

     Here, with one balm for many fevers found, / Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound.

3. (of food) From which none of its constituents has been removed.

4. (mining) As yet unworked.

Translations

Adverb

whole (comparative more whole, superlative most whole)

1. (colloquial) In entirety; entirely; wholly.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:completely

Translations

Noun

whole (plural wholes)

1. Something complete, without any parts missing.

   Synonyms: entireness, totality; see also Thesaurus:entirety

   Meronym: part

2. An entirety.

Translations

Derived terms

Further reading

• All and whole — Linguapress online English grammar

References

• whole at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Howle, howel

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ???????? (merismós, “a dividing”), derived from the Ancient Greek verb ?????? (meríz?, “to divide into parts”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m????zm?s/

Noun

merismus

1. (rhetoric) A metonymic term to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, perhaps contrasting or complementary parts, are made to stand for the whole.

Usage notes

The term was generally used around in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (It can be found used to describe both Shakespeare and Christian Reformation theologians by their contemporaries.) It then seems to have fallen into disuse, only being revived in the middle of the twentieth century.

References

• merismus, in Worldwide Words.com'