wham

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wæm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /hwæm/
• Rhymes: -æm

Noun

wham (plural whams)

1. a forceful blow

   Roger was given a violent wham by his boxing opponent.

2. the sound of such a blow; a thud

   We heard a wham as the hammer struck the wall.

Interjection

wham

1. The sound of a forceful blow.

   Wham! The truck hit the wall.

   • 1950 July 22, Ferguson Findley, “Waterfront”, in Louis Ruppel, editor, Collier's: Incorporating Features of the American Magazine, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, page 16:

     I was off duty, minding my own business, […] when I heard a gun go off. Wham! it roared, not more than twenty feet from me, and then, in quick succession, wham—wham!

2. Used to indicate something sudden, unanticipated, and dramatic has occurred.

   Our relationship was going smoothly and then wham! Out of nowhere he told me he was leaving me for another woman.

   • 1952 September 22, “Since Stevenson Prefers 'Compromise', Foreign Policy Is Squarely in the Campaign”, in LIFE, volume 33, number 12, Time Inc., →ISSN, page 30:

     Wham! Overnight he [Dwight D. Eisenhower] became a warmonger.

   • 2008 August, Douglas Coupland, “40 on the Outside, 30 on the Inside: My theory of how men really age”, in Best Life, volume 5, number 6, Rodale, Inc., →ISSN, page 77:

     I'll look the exact same way for a decade, and then— wham!— God hits the progeria switch and for two years the downhill plunge begins anew.

Translations

sound of a forceful blow

• Bulgarian: трясък (bg) m (trjasǎk)
• German: wumm, bum
• Polish: bach (pl)
• Thai: โครม (kroom)

Verb

wham (third-person singular simple present whams, present participle whamming, simple past and past participle whammed)

1. To strike or smash (into) something with great force or impact.
   • 1994 October, Harry Hay, “Focussing On NAMBLA Obscures The Issues”, in Gay Community News, page 16:

     My Wobblie worker buddies taught me to wham anybody who bothered me hard and fast in the crotch with my knee or my elbow.

Related terms

• whammy
• whim-wham

Anagrams

• hawm, mwah

Middle English

Pronoun

wham

1. Alternative form of whom (“who, whom”, accusative)

Scots

Pronoun

wham

Scots, wham Bruce has aften led.

Scots, whom Bruce has often led.

1. whom