Etymology Corner – ‘Wuthering’

Last week Emily Brontë and Kate Bush shared a birthday. To celebrate Bush’s 57th and Brontë’s 197th, we delve into the origin of the wonderfully Gothic ‘wuthering’.

The title of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights refers to the name of a haunted farmhouse in an exposed moorland location. Brontë explains that the provincial adjective ‘wuthering’ is ‘descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather’.

‘Wuthering’ is an old Yorkshire dialect word, characteristic of the regional flavour with which Brontë imbues her work. It is the Yorkshire form of a mainly Scottish dialect word ‘whitherin’. This comes from the now obsolete verb ‘whither’, which meant ‘to blow’, and ultimately comes from an Old Norse word ‘hvitha’ meaning ‘a squall of wind’.

We no longer use ‘whitherin’ or ‘whither’, but thanks to Emily Brontë (and perhaps also to Kate Bush) there is still a place for ‘wuthering’ in the dictionary.

Other Articles

15 words & phrases to get the Eurovision party started

Are you ready for Eurovision? An annual celebration of music, culture and questionable fashion choices, the Eurovision Song Contest is a live broadcast international song competition in which members of the European Broadcasting Union – plus Australia! –  compete each year. Since its establishment in 1956,… Read More

The Coronation: God Save King Charles!

As mentioned in my coronation post earlier this week, the coronation ceremony is hallowed by time. Edgar was the earliest English king to be crowned, at Bath Abbey in 973; Robert the Bruce was hastily crowned King of Scots at Scone (rhymes with ‘spoon’) in 1306… Read More

The Coronation: God Save the King!

On 6 May 2023 Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor will be crowned King Charles III in a coronation ceremony dating back, if not to time immemorial, at least ten centuries. Just to be absolutely clear, Charles is of course already King, for the Crown knows no… Read More