The word "contraction" means to squeeze, shrink, or make smaller so it seems logical that contractions in the English language are the shortening of two words by joining them together. Using an apostrophe in place of the omitted letters, most contractions make sense; i.e., do not = don't; they are = they're; I would = I'd. That being said, why is "won't" the contraction for "will not" instead of "willn't"?

As it turns out, there is a very complex answer to this question involving reducing negatives in the Old English language; however, simply put, "won't" is a contraction of "woll not", "woll" being a very old synonym for the word "will". After spending waaaaay too much time researching this subject, trust me, this easy-to-understand summary is all you need to know about the contraction "won't".