wholesome

From earlier holesome, from Middle English holsom, holsum, helsum, halsum, from Old English *hālsum, *hǣlsum, from Proto-Germanic *hailasamaz, equivalent to whole +‎ -some. Cognate with Dutch heilzaam, Icelandic heilsamur, Norwegian Nynorsk helsesam, Swedish hälsosam (“wholesome”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhoʊlsəm/

wholesome (comparative wholesomer, superlative wholesomest)

1. Promoting good physical health and well-being.
2. Promoting moral and mental well-being.
   • 1750, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music), “'Theodora'”‎:

     Though hard, my friends, yet wholesome are the truths, taught in affliction's school, whence the pure soul rises refined, and soars above the world.

3. Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.
4. Promoting virtue or being virtuous.

• (promoting health): healthy, healthful, salubrious

• unwholesome

• wholesomely
• wholesomeness

• wholesome in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• wholesome in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.