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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

wantum en · VERB · etymology 1

Etymology

Eye dialect for want 'em.

Meanings

  1. (qualifier:imitating broken English) To want.
    • Oh, ah — er — me wantum Chinkie just come in. 2003, Thomas Burke, More Limehouse Nights, →ISBN, page 126:
    • Then he have wongie along Sargint in office feller. White blackfeller wantum know 'bout old Sarah, an' Sargint he tellum she goodoh. 1998, Arthur W. Upfield, The Bone is Pointed, →ISBN, page 82:
    • “You wantum eat? You wantum sleep? If you wantum eat you wakum up.” 2009, Richard M. Dixon, Choosing Sides, →ISBN, page 166:

wantum en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

Blend of want + quantum, coined by Irish writer Samuel Beckett.

Meanings

  1. A quantifiable deficiency or desire
    • The desire to find something could provoke what she called 'wantum mechanics,' fishing a result out of nothing but noise. 2014, Gregory Benford, Gregory Benford SF Gateway Omnibus: Artifact, Cosm, Eater, →ISBN:
    • To use Wylie's phraseology: the quantum of this particular discursive wantum cannot vary. 2004, Anthony Uhlmann, Sjef Houppermans, Bruno Clément, After Beckett, →ISBN, page 249:
    • Her quantum of wantum cannot vary. 1938, Samuel Beckett, Murphy:
    • A projection of “Wantum” requires, in the Couple, a reciprocal agreement on the part of the other to allow more than his own portion of Wantum to be discovered in him or herself. 1993, Harold N. Boris, Passions of the Mind: Unheard Melodies, →ISBN:

Forms

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wantums Number=Plur lexicographic