Lukewarm
/ˌluːkˈwɔːm/noun
Moderately warm; tepid.
Did you know?The word became famous in English through the Bible’s warning that the lukewarm will be “spit out,” giving an ordinary temperature word a haunting moral charge.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
hlūc-wearm
“tepid; moderately warm”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*hlūka- + *warmaz
“warm; probably with a prefix meaning 'lukewarm' or 'rather' attached to 'warm'”
Middle English
ME
lukewarm
“tepid; neither hot nor cold”
15th Century
English
lukewarm
“tepid; figuratively indifferent or half-hearted”
Modern English
English
lukewarm
“moderately warm; not enthusiastic”