what – English noun declension

English noun forms of what

Noun: what
Singularwhat
Pluralwhats

Sample Sentences

  • They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed / Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, / That doth despise the dainties of the towne[…] [1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7:]
  • The emphasis on the interplay between the hows and whats of interpretive practice is paramount. [2005, Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, page 493:]
  • 2012, "We Are Both", season 2, episode 2 of Once Upon a Time
  • Regina: What are you?
  • Rumplestiltskin: What? What? What? My, my, what a rude question! I am not a what.

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *kʷ-
3. Proto-Indo-European *kʷís
4. Proto-Germanic *hwat
5. Proto-West Germanic *hwat
6. Old English hwæt
7. Middle English what
8. English what
9. From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód (“what”), neuter form of *kʷós (“who”).
10. Cognate with Scots what, whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”).
11. Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Malaysian and Singaporean Englishes is analogous to Malay apa and Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English. See: Middle English Nouns 'what', Old English Nouns 'hwæt', Swedish Nouns 'vad', Icelandic Nouns 'hvað'.