Etymology

winsome

win·some
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Today it means: Charming, engaging, winning; inspiring approval and trust, especially if in an innocent manner. Full definition →

Middle English wynsom ← Old English wynsum ← Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wunnjusam“joyful”
  2. Old English · inherited fromwynsum“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromwynsom
  4. English todaywinsome

Inherited from Middle English wynsom, winsom, winsome, winsum, wunsum (“beautiful; agreeable, gracious, pleasant; generous; of situations: favourable, propitious”), from Old English wynsum (“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam (“joyful”). By surface analysis, winne (“delight, joy, pleasure”) + -some.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.