whim-wham
whim-wham · whim-whams
A whim or fancyA whim or fancy.
Meaning
3 sensesA whim or fancy.
(in the plural)A state of nervous anxiety.
(obsolete)A whimsical object; a trinket.
Origin
Uncertain; perhaps from North Germanic (compare Old Norse hvima (“to let the eyes wander”)Uncertain; perhaps from North Germanic (compare Old Norse hvima (“to let the eyes wander”), Norwegian kvima (“to flutter”)), but in any case ultimately sound-symbolic/a fanciful reduplication (compare flim-flam).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.