Etymology

won't

Today it means: will not (negative auxiliary); used to indicate a future non-occurring action. Full definition →

Middle English wynnot
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Middle English · derived fromwill not, wil not, wyll not, will noght, wil noht, willi noȝt, wyl nat, wol not, woll not, wole not, wolle not, wol nat, woll nat, etc.
  2. Middle English · inherited fromwynnot
  3. English todaywon't

From earlier wonnot, from Middle English wynnot, wilnot, wolnot, wilnat, a contraction of Middle English will not, wil not, wyll not, will noght, wil noht, willi noȝt, wyl nat, wol not, woll not, wole not, wolle not, wol nat, woll nat, etc., equivalent to a will + not and/or woll + not. For the pronunciation with /oʊ/, /əʊ/, see poultry.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.