wantum
English
Etymology 1
Eye dialect for want 'em.
Verb
wantum
- (pidgin) To want.
- 1998, Arthur W. Upfield, The Bone is Pointed, →ISBN, page 82:
- Then he have wongie along Sargint in office feller. White blackfeller wantum know 'bout old Sarah, an' Sargint he tellum she goodoh.
- 2003, Thomas Burke, More Limehouse Nights, →ISBN, page 126:
- Oh, ah — er — me wantum Chinkie just come in.
- 2009, Richard M. Dixon, Choosing Sides, →ISBN, page 166:
- “You wantum eat? You wantum sleep? If you wantum eat you wakum up.”
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Etymology 2
Blend of want + quantum, coined by Samuel Beckett
Noun
wantum (plural wantums)
- a quantifiable deficiency or desire
- 1938, Samuel Beckett, Murphy:
- Her quantum of wantum cannot vary.
- 1993, Harold N. Boris, Passions of the Mind: Unheard Melodies, →ISBN:
- 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.
- 2004, Anthony Uhlmann, Sjef Houppermans, & Bruno Clément, After Beckett, →ISBN, page 249:
- To use Wylie's phraseology: the quantum of this particular discursive wantum cannot vary.
- 2014, Gregory Benford, Gregory Benford SF Gateway Omnibus: Artifact, Cosm, Eater, →ISBN:
- The desire to find something could provoke what she called 'wantum mechanics,' fishing a result out of nothing but noise.
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