What

rel. pro. (old).—1.  That, or that which: still a vulgarism: e.g., I had a donkey WHAT wouldn’t go.

  1570.  ASCHAM, The Scholemaster, 142. The matter WHAT other men wrote.

  1593.  PEELE, Edward the First (Old Plays), II. 37.

  1601.  SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., v. 1. 126.

  2.  (colloquial).—How much.

  1867.  A. TROLLOPE, The Last Chronicle of Barset, xxxvii. When a man bets he doesn’t well know WHAT money he uses.

  Indef. pro. (old).—(a) A something, anything: e.g., I’ll tell you WHAT (it is). Also a bit, portion, a thing: e.g., It’s a WHANGAM (q.v.); It’s WHAT?

  1373.  CHAUCER, The House of Fame, 1741.

  d. 1513.  FABYAN, The New Chronicles of England and of France, clxxii. Then the kynge anone called his seruaunt, that hadde but one lofe and a lytell WHATTE of wyne.

  1596.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, VI. ix. 7.

  1597.  SHAKESPEARE, Richard III., iii. 2. 92.

  1622.  MASSINGER, The Virgin Martyr, iii. 3. I’ll tell you WHAT now of the devil.

  1869.  H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Folks, xl. I tell you WHAT,—Ellery Davenport lays out to marry a real angel. He ’s to swear, and she ’s to pray!

  WHAT’S-HIS-NAME, etc., phr. (old colloquial).—1.  A locution in speaking of what one has either forgotten, thinks so trivial, or does not wish to mention. Also WHAT-D’YE-CALL-IT, WHAT-D’YE-CALL-’EM, LORD KNOW’S WHAT, WASHICAL, etc.: cf. THINGUMY.

  1600.  SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It, iii. 3. 74. Touch. Good even, good master WHAT YE CALL’T: How do you, sir?

  1664.  COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie, 75.

  1706.  WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 31. The ship’s crew … often call his Words to account, and too often count his Sunday labour a Sham, and himself a sacred WHAT-YE-CALL-’EM.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas (1812), I. xv. Mr. WHAT-D’YE-CALL-’UM, I never exact too much.

  1759–67.  STERNE, Tristram Shandy, VIII. 19. There is no part of the body, an’ please your honour [with] … so many tendons and WHAT-D’YE-CALL-EMS all about it.

  1801.  T. DIBDIN, Il Bondocani, ii. 2. I wou’dn’t keep signior WHAT-D’YE-CALL-HIM waiting for the world.

  1811.  L. M. HAWKINS, The Countess and Gertrude, iii. 97. [An inferior is addressed as] MRS. WHAT’S-YOUR-NAME.

  1888.  Detroit Free Press, 8 Dec. ‘Won’t it be rather hard at first to give up all the pink suppers and kettledrums and afternoon WHAT-DO-YOU-CALL-’EMS?’ with a suspicion of a grin on his face.

  2.  (venery).—The penis: see PRICK. WHAT’S-HER-NAME = the female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE: also WHAT’S-ITS-NAME, THE LORD KNOWS WHAT, etc.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 42.

  TO KNOW WHAT’S WHAT (WHAT’S O’CLOCK, etc.), verb. phr. (common).—To have knowledge, taste, judgment, or experience; TO BE WIDE-AWAKE (q.v.), equal to any emergency, FLY (q.v.).

  1513–25.  SKELTON, Colyn Cloute, in Works [DYCE], ii. 132. TO KNOWE WHATE YS A CLOCKE.

  c. 1520.  Chaucer’s Dream, 216. [There occurs] to KNOW WHAT WAS WHAT.

  1534.  UDALL, Roister Doister, i. 2, p. 17 (ARBER).

  1563.  GOOGE, Eclogues, vii.

  1609.  JONSON, Epicœne, or the Silent Woman, v. Daw. O, it pleases him to say so, sir; but Sir Amorous KNOWS WHAT’S WHAT as well.

  1679.  WYCHERLEY, Love in a Wood, iii. 1. Joyn. But you Gossip, KNOW WHAT’S WHAT.

  1711.  Spectator, No. 132, 1 Aug. This sly saint, who, I will warrant you, UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS WHAT as well as you or I, widow, shall give the bride as father.

  1773.  GOLDSMITH, She Stoops to Conquer, v. ‘Come, boy, I’m an old fellow, and KNOW WHAT’S WHAT as well as you that are younger.’

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 330. As soon as we get settled we must stock our cellar, and establish a respectable larder, like people who KNOW WHAT IS WHAT.

  1836.  DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, ‘Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle,’ ii. Our governor’s wide awake, he is; I’ll never say nothin’ agin him, nor no man; but he KNOWS WHAT’S O’CLOCK, he does, uncommon. Ibid. (1836), Pickwick Papers, 364 (1857). ‘Never mind, Sir,’ said Mr. Weiler with dignity, ‘I KNOW WOT’S O’CLOCK.’

  1849.  THACKERAY, Pendennis, x. I’m not clever, p’raps; but I am rather downy; and partial friends say I know WHAT’S O’CLOCK tolerably well.

  1874.  BEETON, The Siliad, 172. And KNOW WHAT’S WHAT in England, and who’s who.

  1887.  BAUMANN, Londinismen, Slang und Cant, ‘A Slang Ditty,’ p. vi.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxvii. As for old Mullockson, he used to take a drive to Sawpit Gully, or Ten-Mile, as soon as ever he saw WHAT O’CLOCK it was—and glad to clear out, too.

  WHAT NOT, phr. (colloquial).—Elliptical for ‘What may I not say’; also as subs. = no matter what, what you please, ‘etcetera.’

  1592.  G. HARVEY, Four Letters. If Mother Hubbard, in the vein of Chaucer, happened to tell one canicular tale, father Elderton and his son Greene, in the vein of Skelton or Scoggin, will counterfeit a hundred dogged fables, libels, calumnies, slanders, lies for the whetstone, WHAT NOT.

  1602.  J. COOKE, How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, v., 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 78]. Mrs Ma. Why, you Jacksauce! you cuckold! you WHAT-NOT!

  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 150. Such air is unwholesome and engenders melancholy, plagues, and WHAT NOT.

  1678.  BUNYAN, Pilgrim’s Progress, i. Lions, dragons, darkness, and in a word, death and WHAT NOT.

  1862.  THACKERAY, The Adventures of Philip, ix. I profess to be an impartial chronicler of poor Philip’s fortunes, misfortunes, friendships, and WHAT-NOTS.

  1887.  E. A. FREEMAN, Oxford after Forty Years, in The Contemporary Review, li. 617. College A cannot compete with College B unless it has more scholarships, unless it changes the time of election to scholarships, or WHAT NOT.

  1903.  Daily Telegraph, 28 Dec., 5. 1. British, Italian, French, Russians, and natives … and WHAT-NOT.

  TO GIVE WHAT FOR, verb. phr. (common).—To reprimand, call over the coals, castigate, PUNISH (q.v.).

  THE LORD KNOWS WHAT, phr. (colloquial).—1.  ‘Heaps’; plenty more; all sorts of things.

  1691–2.  Gentlemen’s Journal, March, p. 3. Here’s novels, and new-town adventures … and the LORD KNOWS WHAT NOT.

  2.  See WHAT’S-HIS-NAME, 2.

  WHAT HO! phr. (old).—A summons or call: once the recognised formula: long disused save in melodrama and burlesque, but latterly recrudescent in vulgar salutation and expletive.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 1. 52. Gads. WHAT HO! chamberlain! Chamb. [Within] At hand, quoth pick-purse.

  1898.  MARSHALL, Pomes, ii. Where ’e let me in for drinks all round, and as I’d but a bob, I thought, ‘WHAT HO! ’Ow am I a-going on?’

  WHAT PRICE ——? phr. (racing and common).—How’s that? What do you think? How much? What odds?

  1893.  P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xiv. What PRICE you, when you fell off the scaffold?

  1895.  R. POCOCK, The Rules of the Game, II. x. WHAT PRICE Mr. Jack Hayles, eh, boys? That proves he’s a thief!

  1898.  Cigarette, 26 Nov., 13. 1. Ain’t he gone on saucy colours, Eh? WHAT PRICE the green and red?

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, ix. WHAT PRICE grammar? It don’t seem to teach people to keep a civil tongue in their ’ead.

  1901.  Free Lance, 13 April, 28, 2. ‘It is all very well,’ writes a traveller, ‘to legislate with regard to pure beer, but WHAT PRICE pure wine?’

  WHAT (WHO, WHEN, WHERE, or HOW) THE DEVIL, phr. (common).—An expletive of wonder, vexation, etc.

  c. 1360.  Alliterative Poems [MORRIS], 97. [Jonah is asked by his shipmates] WHAT ÞE DEUEL hatȝ þou don, doted wrech?

  1735.  POPE, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 171.

  1776.  GARRICK, Bon Ton, or High Life Above Stairs, ii. 1. Sir T. Why, WHAT THE DEVIL do you make one at these masqueradings?

  1780.  HANNAH COWLEY, The Belle’s Stratagem, i. 3. Har. WHO THE DEVIL could have foreseen that?

  1827.  R. B. PEAKE, Comfortable Lodgings, i. 3. WHAT THE DEVIL is all this about?

  1836.  M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge [Ry. ed. 1860], 134. HOW THE DEVIL can you get anything out of an empty vessel?