A Dictionary of Cont..

in a mnn that 2 respect, or a contact clause
containing no relative is used, as in a man I
respect. Neither that nor a contact clause can
be used after a proper name. Here whom is
preferred to who when the word is the object
of the verb; but who is also acceptable, as in
Fanny, who I hope you will see soon.
whoever; whomever. Whoever is an indefinite
pronoun and may be used as a singular or a
plural. It can be thought of as a combined
personal pronoun and relative pronoun, such as
he who or they who, and is used in statements
about everyone who fits the description that
follows, as whoever comes, whoever likes me.
It is not an interrogative and should not be
used where no description can be given, as in
whoever do you mean? and I can’t imagine
whoever you are thinking of. Sentences of this
kind are not standard and nothing is saved by
writing whoever as two words, as in who ever
do you mean? However, a question such as who
ever heard of that? is entirely different. Here
ever is an adverb attached to heard, and is
above reproach.
The form whoever is required whenever the
word is the subject of a verb, as in whoever
told you that is mistaken. It is also acceptable
as the object of a verb or preposition, as in
ask whoever you see and ask whoever you speak
to. The form whomever is not required but may
be used when the word is the object of the verb
or of a preposition in the subordinate, descriptive
clause. It should not be used when the word
is the subject of the subordinate verb. For
example, whoever is required and whomever
would be a mistake in he iells whoever comes
along and he was angry with whoever opposed
him, because the form of the word is determined
by the fact that it is the subject of the
following verb, comes or opposed, and not by
the fact that it is the object of a preceding verb,
tells, or a preceding preposition, with. Whomever
is an extremely literary word and should
not be used unless it is used in the literary
manner.
Whoever (and whomever) came into general
use a little more than three hundred years ago.
The King James Bible uses an older form whosoever,
which is now archaic. A still older form,
whosomever, was archaic in 1600 and does not
appear in Biblical English, but it is still heard
in rural areas in the United States.
In current English the possessive form of
whoever is whoever’s, as in whoever’s dog it is.
But an older form, whosever, is also used, especially
when no noun follows, as in whosever
it is. Since whosoever is a purely literary word,
it has only the old possessive form whosesoever.
whole. See complete.
whorl. See whirl.
whose is a possessive pronoun. When used as tho
possessive form of an interrogative pronoun, it
refers only to persons, as in whose it is? When
used as the possessive form of a relative pronoun,
it may refer to things as well as to
557 Wild
persons or animals, as in a land whose stones
are iron and out of whose hills thou mayesf dig
brass. A country whose rainfall is abundant is
better English than a country, the rainfall of
which is abundant.
The form who’s is a contraction of who is
and should not be used in place of the possessive
pronoun whose.
why. This word may be used at the beginnlng of
a sentence to show surprise, as in Why! This &
a pleasure! It may be used anywhere in a
sentence so long as it means “the reason” or
“for what reason,” as in I know why he didn’t
stay.
The word reason is often followed by the
word why, as in I know the reason why he
didn’t stay. This use of why is sometimes condemned
as redundant or pleonastic, but the
phrase the reason why is a standard English
idiom, and has been for many centuries. Anyone
who wants to can always omit words that
are not strictly necessary to his meaning, but
if this is done consistently the result ia a stiff,
unnatural English. As a rule, it is better to be
natural than to be correct according to theories
that other people have never heard of. (For
the reason is because, see because.)
The use of why in the middle of a sentence,
as a loose connective with no reference at all
to a reason, does not have the same standing.
Sentences such as when I got there, why she
was waiting for me are heard only in careless or
uneducated speech.
wide. See broad.
-wide. See soilixes.
wide awake; wide-awake; wideawake. Wide awake
means fully awake, alert, keenly conscious and
aware. In England wideawake and wide-awake
may be used as adjectives meaning fully awake,
with the eyes wide open (He gave him a wideawake
stare); alert, keen, or knowing (only a
wide-awake young man can fill the position).
As nouns, wideawake and wide-awake were
used formerly to describe a soft, low-crowned
felt hat. In the United States only wide-awake
is now used as an adjective, though wideawake
(especially in reference to the hat) once was.
wideness, width. See breadth.
wide open spaces. Used seriously in reference to
the unsettled sections of the country, particularly
the western desert and semi-desert, Ihe
wide open spaces is a clichC. Used facetiously,
it is a bore.
wife. The plural is wives.
The expression an old wives’ tale contains an
old form of the genitive and is equivalent to
an old wife’s tale. This is not an instance of a
plural noun used as the first element in a compound.
And wife’s here means “woman’s” not
necessarily “married wornan’s.”
wild horses could not drag it from me. As a hyperbolic
affirmation of secrecy, the assurance that
wild horses couldn’t drag it from me is a clich&
The reference is to a form of torture and
punishment in which each arm and each leg of