(wĭnˈsəm)
adjective Charming, often in a childlike or naive way.
Related Forms:
Word History: Winsome people easily win friends, so it is not surprising that
winsome and
win have a common root. Their shared element
win- comes from the Indo-European root
*wen-, meaning “to desire, strive for,” and has a number of descendants in the Germanic languages. One was the prehistoric Germanic noun
*wini- meaning “friend” (literally, “one who desires or loves” someone else), which became
wine in Old English and is preserved in such names as
Winfred, “friend of peace,” and
Edwin, “friend of (family) possessions.” A different form of the root with a different suffix became Old English
wynn, “pleasure, joy,” preserved in
winsome. Finally, the verb
win itself is from this root; its meaning is an extension of the sense “to strive for,” namely, “to strive for with success, be victorious.” Outside of the Germanic branch of Indo-European, we see the root, for example, in Latin
venus or
Venus “love, the goddess of love,” and the verb
venerāre, “to worship,” the source of English
venerate.