was | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, by 1955.

also washout, 1877, "act of washing out" (a drain, etc.), from verbal phrase; see wash (v.) + out (adv.). From 1873 as "excavation of a roadbed, etc., by erosion" is from 1873. Meaning "a disappointing failure" is from 1902, from verbal phrase wash out "obliterate, cancel" (something written in ink), attested from 1570s. Hence also the colloquial sense of "to call off (an event) due to bad weather, etc." (1917). Of colored material, washed-out "faded" is from 1837.

washroom (n.)

1806, from wash + room (n.).

wash-tub (n.)

c. 1600, from wash (v.) + tub (n.).

wassup (interj.)

slang form of common greeting what's up?, popular 2000.

candle-waster (n.)

"one who wastes candles," specifically a contemptuous word for one who follows occupations considered unprofitable or harmful, 1590s, from candle + agent noun from waste (v.).

A whoreson book-worm, a candle-waster. [Ben Jonson, "Cynthia's Revels"]

washer (n.2)

"flat ring for sealing joints or holding nuts," mid-14c., generally considered an agent noun of wash (v.), but the sense connection is difficult, and the noun may derive instead from the ancestor of French vis "screw, vise" (see vise).

washable (adj.)

1620s, from wash (v.) + -able. Related: Washables (n.), 1892.

wastage (n.)

1673, a hybrid from waste (v.) + -age.

wasteful (adj.)

early 14c., "destructive," from waste (n.) + -ful. Meaning "lavish" is from mid-15c. Related: Wastefully; wastefulness.

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