whosoever
See also: whosoëver
English
WOTD – 21 May 2006
Alternative forms
- whosoëver (archaic)
Etymology
From Middle English whosoever. By surface analysis, who + so + ever.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /huːsəʊˈɛvə/
- (US) IPA(key): /huːsoʊˈɛvɚ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ)
Pronoun
whosoever (objective whomsoever, possessive whosesoever) (formal)
- Whatever person or persons: emphasised or elaborated form of whoever.
- Whosoever partakes of this elixir shall have eternal life.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- If thou do pardon whoſoeuer pray, / More ſinnes for this forgiueneſs proſper may: […]
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 6:47:
- Whoſoeuer commeth to me, and heareth my ſayings, and doeth them, I will ſhew you to whom he is like.
- 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cure of Deſpaire by Phyſick, good counſell, comforts, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 4, member 3, subsection 6, page 707:
- His mercy is a panacea, a balſome for an afflicted ſoule, a Soveraigne medicine, an alexipharmacum for all ſinne, a charme for the Divell, his mercy was great to Solomon, to Manaſſes, to Peter, great to all offenders, and whoſoever thou art, it may be ſo to thee.
- 1840 May 5, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture I. The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 8:
- This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.
- 1982 (date recorded), Rod Temperton, “Thriller”, performed by Michael Jackson:
- Whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down, must stand and face the hounds of hell