who

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English who, early hwo,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hwā (“who; anyone, someone”),^[5][6][7][4] from Proto-Germanic *hwaz,^[5][8] from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-, the stem of the relative and interrogative pronouns.^[5][7][9] Its Germanic cognates include Old Frisian hwā, Old Saxon hwē, Dutch wie, Old High German hwer, German wer, Old Norse hverr, Danish hvo and Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍃 (ƕas).^{[3][6][4][10]} The same Indo-European stem gives Lithuanian kàs (“who”) and Latin quī (“who (relative)”), and a variant stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷi- gives quis (“who?”), Ancient Greek τίς (tís, “who?”) and Hittite kuis.^[3][10][11] The neuter Proto-Indo-European *kʷod gave what,^[9] and whom continues the Old English dative hwām.^[3][12] The modern pronunciation arose when the vowel was rounded under the influence of the w sound, which was then lost before the rounded vowel, as in two.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, asking which person, in direct questions: the OED's first example is from the Metrical Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn.^[6] Barnhart dates Old English hwā to about 725, in Beowulf.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English hwā was mainly an interrogative, but it could also mean "anyone, someone" or "whoever";^[5][6][2] that indefinite use survived in Middle English clauses after if, but or though until about 1400.^[6][2] Its use as a relative pronoun, referring back to a person already named, dates from the 13th century.^[4][13] Chaucer used the word 256 times and Gower 208 times.^[14] From the 15th century who also began to stand for the object of a verb, first in a Paston letter of 1449.^[6] From Shakespeare's time it was also the object of a preposition placed at the end of the clause, taking over much of the work of whom.^[6] Johnson (1755) put the relative use first, "applied to persons".^[15] The elliptical who?, asking for a name the speaker did not catch or understand, is recorded from 1749, in Fielding's Tom Jones.^[6][13] Merriam-Webster also records a noun, "the person or persons involved".^[11]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English hwā, in Beowulf.^[3]
• c. 1250 – Middle English hwo, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[3]
• c. 1303 – the spelling who, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[3]
• 13th century – relative pronoun, referring to a person already named.^[4]
• before 1400 – last use as an indefinite pronoun, "anyone", after if or though.^[6]
• 1449 – object of a verb, in place of whom.^[6]
• before 1616 – object of a preposition, in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1.^[6]
• 1749 – standing for a name the speaker asks to have explained.^[6]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. What or which person or people, in direct and indirect questions: Who left the gate open? or I wonder who sent these flowers.^[16][11][6]
2. Used to ask about a person's character, rank or authority: Who is he to give us orders?^[11][6][13]
3. Introducing a relative clause that refers to a person or people: The neighbours who moved in last spring have a dog.^[16][11]
4. The person or people that; whoever: Invite who you like.^[16][13]
5. (obsolete) Anyone, someone.^[6][2]

Noun

1. The person or people involved: the who, the how and the when of the affair.^[11]

Related words

• what
• whom
• whose
• whoever
• whosoever
• which
• where
• when
• why

Usage notes

Usage guides say that who is the subject form and whom the object form, and formal edited prose mostly follows this; but in speech and most writing who is chosen at the start of a clause whatever its function, and whom is now usual only straight after a preposition.^[17] Treating whom as the more correct form also leads to hypercorrect uses where who is the subject.^[17] In Irish English the relative who is often left out.^[18] In northern England and Lancashire dialect who could also mean "she", the same word as hoo.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
18. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)