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who
[hoo] 
–pronoun; possessive whose; objective whom.
—Idiom| 1. | what person or persons?: Who did it? |
| 2. | (of a person) of what character, origin, position, importance, etc.: Who does she think she is? |
| 3. | the person that or any person that (used relatively to represent a specified or implied antecedent): It was who you thought. |
| 4. | (used relatively in restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses to represent a specified antecedent, the antecedent being a person or sometimes an animal or personified thing): Any kid who wants to can learn to swim. |
| 5. | Archaic. the person or persons who. |
| 6. | as who should say, Archaic. in a manner of speaking; so to say. |
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE hwā; c. OHG hwer, Goth hwas, L quis
bef. 900; ME; OE hwā; c. OHG hwer, Goth hwas, L quis
Usage note:
The typical usage guide statement about the choice between who and whom says that the choice must be determined by the grammar of the clause within which this pronoun occurs. Who is the appropriate form for the subject of a sentence or clause: Who are you? The voters who elected him have not been disappointed. Whom is the objective form: Whom did you ask? To whom are we obliged for this assistance? This method of selecting the appropriate form is generally characteristic of formal writing and is usually followed in edited prose.
In most speech and writing, however, since who or whom often occurs at the beginning of the sentence or clause, there is a strong tendency to choose who no matter what its function. Even in edited prose, who occurs at least ten times as often as whom, regardless of grammatical function. Only when it directly follows a preposition is whom more likely to occur than who: Mr. Erickson is the man to whom you should address your request.
In natural informal speech, whom is quite rare. Who were you speaking to? is far more likely to occur than the “correct” To whom were you speaking? or Whom were you speaking to? However, the notion that whom is somehow more “correct” or elegant than who leads some speakers to hypercorrect uses of whom: Whom are you? The person whom is in charge has left the office. See also than.
The typical usage guide statement about the choice between who and whom says that the choice must be determined by the grammar of the clause within which this pronoun occurs. Who is the appropriate form for the subject of a sentence or clause: Who are you? The voters who elected him have not been disappointed. Whom is the objective form: Whom did you ask? To whom are we obliged for this assistance? This method of selecting the appropriate form is generally characteristic of formal writing and is usually followed in edited prose.
In most speech and writing, however, since who or whom often occurs at the beginning of the sentence or clause, there is a strong tendency to choose who no matter what its function. Even in edited prose, who occurs at least ten times as often as whom, regardless of grammatical function. Only when it directly follows a preposition is whom more likely to occur than who: Mr. Erickson is the man to whom you should address your request.
In natural informal speech, whom is quite rare. Who were you speaking to? is far more likely to occur than the “correct” To whom were you speaking? or Whom were you speaking to? However, the notion that whom is somehow more “correct” or elegant than who leads some speakers to hypercorrect uses of whom: Whom are you? The person whom is in charge has left the office. See also than.
who's
[hooz] | 1. | contraction of who is: Who's there? |
| 2. | contraction of who has: Who's seen it? |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To who
| who (hōō) pron.
[Middle English, from Old English hwā; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.] Usage Note: The traditional rules for choosing between who and whom are relatively simple but not always easy to apply. Who is used where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be appropriate, that is, for the subject of a verb or for a predicate nominative; whom is used for a direct or indirect object or for the object of a preposition. Thus, we write the actor who played Hamlet was there, since who is the subject of played; and Whom do you like best? because whom is the object of the verb like; and To whom did you give the letter? because whom is the object of the preposition to. · It is more difficult, however, to apply these rules in complicated sentences, particularly when who or whom is separated from the verb or preposition that determines its form. Intervening words may make it difficult to see that Who do you think is the best candidate? requires who as the subject of the verb is (not whom as the object of think) and The man whom the papers criticized did not show up requires whom as the object of the verb criticized (not who as the subject of showed up). Highly complex sentences such as I met the man whom the government had tried to get France to extradite require careful analysis—in this case, to determine that whom should be chosen as the object of the verb extradite, several clauses away. It is thus not surprising that writers from Shakespeare onward have often interchanged who and whom. Nevertheless, the distinction remains a hallmark of formal style. · In speech and informal writing, however, considerations other than strict grammatical correctness often come into play. Who may sound more natural than whom in a sentence such as Who did John say he was going to support? —though it is incorrect according to the traditional rules. In general, who tends to predominate over whom in informal contexts. Whom may sound stuffy even when correctly used, and when used where who would be correct, as in Whom shall I say is calling? whom may betray grammatical ignorance. · Similarly, though traditionalists will insist on whom when the relative pronoun is the object of a preposition that ends a sentence, grammarians since Noah Webster have argued that the excessive formality of whom is at odds with the relative informality associated with this construction; thus they contend that a sentence such as Who did you give it to? should be regarded as entirely acceptable. · Some grammarians have argued that only who and not that should be used to introduce a restrictive relative clause that identifies a person. This restriction has no basis either in logic or in the usage of the best writers; it is entirely acceptable to write either the woman that wanted to talk to you or the woman who wanted to talk to you. · The grammatical rules governing the use of who and whom in formal writing apply equally to whoever and whomever and are similarly often ignored in speech and informal writing. See Usage Notes at else, that, whose. |
| WHO abbr. World Health Organization |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Who
Who\, pron. [Possess. whose; object. Whom.] [OE. who, wha, AS. hw[=a], interrogative pron., neut. hw[ae]t; akin to OFries. hwa, neut. hwet, OS. hw[=e], neut. hwat, D. wie, neut. wat, G. wer, neut. was, OHG. wer, hwer, neut. waz, hwaz, Icel. hvat, neut., Dan. hvo, neut. hvad, Sw. ho, hvem, neut. hvad, Goth. hwas, fem. hw[=o], neut. hwa, Lith. kas, Ir. & Gael. co, W. pwy, L. quod, neuter of qui, Gr. po`teros whether, Skr. kas. [root]182. Cf. How, Quantity, Quorum, Quote, Ubiquity, What, When, Where, Whether, Which, Whither, Whom, Why.]1. Originally, an interrogative pronoun, later, a relative pronoun also; -- used always substantively, and either as singular or plural. See the Note under What, pron., 1. As interrogative pronouns, who and whom ask the question: What or which person or persons? Who and whom, as relative pronouns (in the sense of that), are properly used of persons (corresponding to which, as applied to things), but are sometimes, less properly and now rarely, used of animals, plants, etc. Who and whom, as compound relatives, are also used especially of persons, meaning the person that; the persons that; the one that; whosoever. "Let who will be President." --Macaulay. [He] should not tell whose children they were. --Chaucer. There thou tell'st of kings, and who aspire; Who fall, who rise, who triumph, who do moan. --Daniel. Adders who with cloven tongues Do hiss into madness. --Shak. Whom I could pity thus forlorn. --Milton. How hard is our fate, who serve in the state. --Addison. Who cheapens life, abates the fear of death. --Young. The brace of large greyhounds, who were the companions of his sports. --Sir W. Scott. 2. One; any; one. [Obs., except in the archaic phrase, as who should say.] As who should say, it were a very dangerous matter if a man in any point should be found wiser than his forefathers were. --Robynson (More's Utopia).
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : who
Spanish:
quién, quiénes,
German:
wer,
Japanese:
だれが
who
O.E. hwa, from P.Gmc. *khwas, *khwes, *khwo (cf. O.S. hwe, Dan. hvo, Swed. vem, O.Fris. hwa, Du. wie, O.H.G. hwer, Ger. wer, Goth. hvo (fem.) "who"), from PIE *qwos/*qwes (cf. Skt. kah "who, which," Avestan ko, Hittite kuish "who," L. qui, quae, quod "who, which, what," Lith. kas "who," O.C.S. kuto, Rus. kto "who," O.Ir. ce, Welsh pwy "who").
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: WHO
Function: abbreviation
World Health Organization
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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| WHO World Health Organization |
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
