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whammy noun [ ˈwami ]

• an event with a powerful and unpleasant effect; a blow.
• "the third whammy was the degradation of the financial system"
• an evil or unlucky influence.
• "I've come to put the whammy on them"
Origin: 1940s: from the noun wham + -y1; associated from the 1950s with the cartoon strip Li'l Abner, in which the hillbilly Evil-Eye Fleegle could ‘shoot a whammy’ (to put a curse on somebody) by pointing a finger with one eye open, and a ‘double whammy’ with both eyes open.


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