Whiplash

How to spell whiplash

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce whiplash

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does whiplash mean?

1. nounA neck injury caused by a sudden jolt that snaps the head forward and back, often from a vehicle collision.
2. nounThe sharp, snapping stroke or flick at the end of a whip.

Whiplash in a sentence

• The rear-end collision left her with whiplash that lasted for months.

• The trainer demonstrated the precise whiplash used to signal the horses.

• The doctor diagnosed whiplash after the car crash and prescribed gentle exercises.

• The sudden whiplash of the cord cracked loudly across the empty arena.

Where does whiplash come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, joining 'whip' and 'lash', both of which entered the language in the medieval period. 'Whip' is recorded from around the 1300s and is related to Middle Dutch and Middle Low German words meaning to swing or move quickly, capturing the sharp flicking motion of the cord. 'Lash' likewise appears in Middle English for a sudden stroke or blow, probably imitating the cracking sound, and it later came to name the flexible striking end of a whip itself. Put together, 'whiplash' first described the literal flick at the tip of a whip, the part that snaps with the greatest speed. The familiar modern medical sense, a neck injury caused when the head is jolted forward and back like that snapping tip, only took hold in the twentieth century with the rise of motor traffic, and the vivid image of the whip's recoil is exactly what makes the word so apt.

How the word is built

• whip (to strike with a flexible cord)
• lash (a sudden blow or the flexible end of a whip)