Word Confusion: Whither vs Wither vs Writhe

Posted June 11, 2012 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
12 Jan 2023

For some reason, I’m seeing these words confused rather frequently. Too frequently for the heroine in one novel who was withering every time her lover had sex with her! Gads, how bad must he have felt as she shriveled up beneath him! And how lousy he must have been as a lover!

Then there’s the character in another storyline who simply wandered off (well, what else could I assume when the author was using “whither“??), but I think they were supposed to shrivel up instead. Oopsie . . .

I’m hoping that eventually the heroine will writhe, as her lover, hopefully, improves his technique.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Whither Wither Writhe

Path Curving Over West Hill by Ken Grainger is under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Whither thou goest, I shalt follow . . .


Dead Plant in Pots by vetcw3 is under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

The cold of winter causes plants to wither.


Worms From Coffee Compost Pile is Shanegenziuk’s own work under the CC-BY-SA-3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Worms writhing in coffee grounds.

Part of Grammar:
Adverb 1; Adverb, relative 1; Conjunction 2 Verb, intransitive & transitive

Third person present verb: withers
Past tense or past participle: withered
Present participle: withering

Noun;
Verb, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: withes
Gerund: writhing

Third person present verb: writhes
Past tense or past participle: writhed
Present participle: writhing

Adverb:
[Archaic or literary] To what place, state, condition, position, degree 1

  • To what end, point, action, or the like?

To which (with reference to a place)

To where?

Relative Adverb:
[Archaic or literary] To which (with reference to a place)1

  • To whatever place
  • Wherever

Conjunction:
To which place 2

To whatever place, purpose

To what situation, position, degree, or end

To the place at, in, or to which

Verb, intransitive:
Shrivel up (plant, limb, skin)

Cease to flourish

Verb, transitive:
Cause harm or damage to

Mortify someone with a scornful look or manner

Noun:
[Knot theory] The number of negative crossings subtracted from the number of positive crossings in a knot

Verb, intransitive:
To twist the body about, or squirm, as in pain, violent effort, etc.

To shrink mentally, as in acute discomfort

Verb, transitive:
To twist or bend out of shape or position

  • Distort
  • Contort

To twist (oneself, the body, etc.) about, as in pain.

Examples:
Adverb:
Whither are we bound?

Then there’s the nursery rhyme:
“Goosey, goosey, gander,
Whither shall I wander”

The lake, whither we were conducted.

Relative Adverb:
The barbecue had been set up by the lake, whither Matthew and Sara were conducted.

We could drive whither we pleased.

Conjunction:
We knew not whither to go.

They landed on the shores whither the storm had tossed them.

It was to the island whither we drifted.

Let them go whither they will.

Verb, intransitive:
The grass had withered to an unappealing brown.

The withered leaves lay on the ground.

The garden withered quickly as the cold set in.

There was a girl with a withered arm.

Our programs could wither away if they did not command local support.

Verb, transitive:
Acting is a business that can wither the hardiest ego.

She withered him with a glance.

“Three years apart had withered her hopes, and she was engaged to someone else” (Garth).

Noun:
“Writhe is a geometric quantity, meaning that while deforming a curve (or diagram) in such a way that does not change its topology, one may still change its writhe” (Knot Theory).

“The writhe of a minimal knot diagram is not a knot invariant, as exemplified by the Perko pair, which have differing writhes (Hoste et al. 1998”; Writhe).

Verb, intransitive:
She writhed in ecstasy in his bed.

She bit her lip, writhing in suppressed fury.

She writhed in embarrassment.

He writhed in agony on the ground.

Verb, transitive:
It was a nest of writhing snakes.

She was writhing her body with abandon on the dance floor.

“His lips … were now writhed into unholy contortions.” – Stephen Crane

Derivatives:
Adjective: nonwithering, overwithered, unwithered, unwithering, withered, withering
Adverb: witheringly
Noun: witheredness, witherer, withering
Adverb: writhingly
Noun: writher
History of the Word:
  1. Old English hwider is from the Germanic base of which.
  2. Before the 12th century.
Late Middle English and apparently a variant of weather, ultimately differentiated for certain senses. Old English wrīthan meaning make into coils, plait, fasten with a cord is of Germanic origin and related to wreathe.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Whither vs. Wither vs. Writhe

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: whither

Garth, John. “Tolkien and the Great War: The threshold of Middle-earth.” PDFCoffee.com. n.d. Web. 12 Jan 2023. <https://pdfcoffee.com/tolkien-and-the-great-war-john-garth-5-pdf-free.html>.

Merriam-Webster: whither

YourDictionary.com: whither

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Withered Tree near Track to Fen Farm by Ian Paterson is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license and Writhing Skink is Ryanvanhuyssteen’s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Both are via Wikimedia Commons.

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