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The origin of whammy is not entirely certain, but it is assumed to have been created by combining wham (a solid blow) with the whimsical -y ending. The first example of whammy in print occured in 1940, but the word was popularized in the 1950s by the cartoonist Al Capp in the comic strip Li'l Abner. The character Evil-Eye Fleegle could paralyze someone with the sheer power of his gaze. The single whammy was a look with one eye, and the fearsome double whammy used both eyes. As you may know, double whammy has also found a place in English as a general term. It means "a combination of two adverse forces, circumstances, or effects" - in other words, a one-two punch.
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Examples of whammy in a Sentence
Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 21 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds have set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled the wildfires, and firefighting efforts have faced challenging conditions with ongoing high winds.
—Alexandra Marquez, NBC News, 13 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled several out-of-control wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
—Denise Chow, NBC News, 9 Jan. 2025
For the Middle East’s oil exporters, COVID-19 has been a triple whammy.
—F. Gregory Gause Iii, Foreign Affairs, 4 Aug. 2020
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Cite this Entry
“Whammy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whammy. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
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