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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

what

/wɒt/
Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.

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    Origin

    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”).

    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”).

    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.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishwhat
      • inheritedOld Englishhwæt
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*hwat
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*hwat “what”
            • inheritedProto-Indo-European*kʷód “what”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*kʷ-
    • derivedEnglishu “The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.”
      • derivedMiddle Englishlower
        • derivedOld Englishlower

    Related: Scots what, North Frisian wat, Saterland Frisian wat, West Frisian wat, Dutch wat, Low German wat, German was, Danish hvad, Norwegian Bokmål hva, Swedish vad, Norwegian Nynorsk kva, Icelandic hvað, Latin quod

    Words built on it: whatever

    Meanings

    det
    1. Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
    2. Which.
    3. Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
    4. Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.
    5. Used to form exclamations indicating that something is remarkable, in either a good or bad way.
    pron
    1. Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
    2. That which; those that; the thing(s) that.
    3. Anything that; all that; whatever.
    4. That; which; who.
    adv
    1. In what way; to what extent.
    2. Used before a prepositional phrase to emphasise that something is taken into consideration as a cause or reason; usually used in combination with 'with' (see what with), and much less commonly with other prepositions.
    intj
    1. An expression of surprise or disbelief.
    2. What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.
    3. What did you say? I beg your pardon? This usage is often considered impolite, with the more polite "Pardon?" or "Excuse me?" preferred.
    4. Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: what