Whale shows the wh- spelling that Old English wrote the other way round, as hw-. Old English hwæl became Middle English whal, and the letters were simply swapped by scribes — the sound did not change at the point the spelling did. What, when, where, why and which all went through the same reversal, which is why English has a cluster of question words that look alike.
The word is Germanic throughout, with relatives in Old Norse hvalr, German Wal and Dutch walvis, and it may be related to Latin squalus, a kind of large sea fish. In Old English it covered the walrus too, and in popular use it was applied to any large sea creature, including the biblical Leviathan and the fish that swallowed Jonah. The phrase a whale of a, meaning an excellent or very large example, is student slang from about 1900.
whale (n.) "marine mammal of fish-like form and habit," especially of the larger types, Old English hwæl "whale," also "walrus," from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (source also of Old Saxon hwal , Old Norse hvalr , hvalfiskr , Swedish val , Middle Dutch wal , walvisc , Dutch walvis , Old High German wal , German Wal ), from PIE *(s)kwal-o- (source also of Latin squalus "a kind of large sea fish"). In popular use it was applied to any large sea animal. Since Middle English also of the biblical Leviathan and the fish that swallowed Jonah. Phrase whale of a "excellent or large example of a" is attested by c. 1900 in student slang. Whale-boat , a long, narrow type originally used in pursuing whales, is by 1756. Whale-oil is attested from mid-15c. Whale shark , in reference to the largest kind of shark, is from 1884. whale (v.1) "take whales, pursue the business of whale-fishing," 1700, from whale (n.). Whale-fishing in this sense is attested from 1570s; also compare whaling (adj.). also from 1700 whale (v.2) "beat, whip severely," 1790, colloquial, possibly a variant of wale (v.) "to mark with 'wales' or stripes" (early 15c.), from wale (n.). OED (1989) also suggests "thrash with a whalebone strip." Related: Whaled ; whaling . also from 1790
whale came in through Old English, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /w/ at the start of a question word | wh-what, when, whale |
What gives it away on the page
| wh- | Old English spelled it hw-; the scribes flipped the pair.what, when, whale |
Old English in the spelling guide · guess another word's family