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PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL3 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Wile”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
WileEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
From Middle English wile, an occupational surname for a trapper or a nickname for a wily person.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗wileEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīl (“wile, trick”) and wiġle (“divination”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą (“craft, deceit”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”)) and Proto-Germanic *wigulą, *wihulą (“prophecy”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to consecrate, hallow, make holy”)). Cognate with Icelandic vél, væl (“artifice, craft, device, fraud, trick”), Dutch wijle. Doublet of guile.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗wileEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
The phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away. We can trace the meaning in an adjectival sense for while back to Old English, hwīlen, "passing, transitory". It is also seen in whilend, "temporary, transitory". But since wile away occurs so often, it is now included in many dictionaries.
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Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
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