whom

English Online Dictionary. What means whom‎? What does whom mean?

English

Alternative forms

• whome (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English whom, wham, from Old English hwām, hwǣm, from Proto-Germanic *hwammai, dative case of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Scots wham (“whom”), German wem (“whom, to whom”), Danish hvem (“who, whom”), Swedish vem (“who, whom”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /huːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

Pronoun

whom (singular and plural objective case of who) (formal)

1. (interrogative) What person or people; which person or people.
   1. As the object of a verb.
   2. As the object of a preposition.
2. (relative) Used to refer to a previously mentioned person or people.
3. (fused relative, archaic outside set patterns) The person(s) whom; whomever.

4. (informal, especially non-US) Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.

Usage notes

• Who is a subject pronoun. Whom is an object pronoun. To determine whether a particular sentence uses a subject or an object pronoun, rephrase it to use he/she/they or him/her/them instead of who, whom; if you use he, she or they, then you use the subject pronoun who; if you use him, her or them, then you use the object pronoun. The same rule applies to whoever/whosoever/whoso and whomever/whomsoever/whomso. In the case of who(m)(so)ever, which usually plays a role in two phrases at once, it is the role in the internal ("downstairs") clause that determines the case. For example, Sell the sofa to whoever offers the most money for it uses whoever because it is the subject of the verb offers; the fact that it is also the object of to is irrelevant.

• Who can also be used as an object pronoun, especially in informal writing and speech (hence one hears not only whom are you waiting for? but also who are you waiting for?), and whom may be seen as (overly) formal; in some dialects and contexts, it is hardly used, even in the most formal settings. As an exception to this, fronted prepositional phrases almost always use whom, e.g. one usually says with whom did you go?, not *with who did you go?. However, dialects in which whom is rarely used usually avoid fronting prepositional phrases in the first place (for example, using who did you go with?).

• The use of who as an object pronoun is proscribed by many authorities, but is frequent nonetheless. It is usually felt to be much more acceptable than the converse hypercorrection in which whom is misused in place of who, as in *the savage whom spoke to me.

• Instead of what or which, particularly in music and sports journalism, although a solecism in conventional or traditional grammar, who and whom are also used with names of collective nouns that define or describe groups of people, for instance singularly-named musical groups or sports clubs, in addition to teams with plural names of anthromorphic non-human beings or inanimate entities.

• For more information, see "who" and "whom" on Wikipedia.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• how'm

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ȝwam, hom, home, huam, qwom, wam, wham, whem, whome, whoom, whoome
• (northern) quam, quem, quuam, qwam, whaim, whame, whaym
• (early) hwam, hwem, whamm, whæm

Etymology

From Old English hwām, hwǣm (dative of hwā), from Proto-West Germanic *hwammē (dative of *hwaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *hwammai (dative of *hwaz), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷósmey (dative of *kʷós).

Forms with short /a/ are generalised unstressed forms.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hwɔːm/, /hwoːm/, /hwam/
• (Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /hwɑːm/
• (Northern) IPA^(key): /hwɑːm/

Pronoun

whom (singular or plural, accusative and dative case, nominative who)

1. (interrogative) (to) who, whom (accusative or dative)
2. (relative) (to) who, whom (accusative or dative)
3. (relative) (to) whoever, whomever (accusative or dative)
4. (relative, uncommon) that (accusative, inanimate)
5. (indefinite, rare) (to) anyone, someone (usually accusative or dative)

Descendants

• English: whom
• Scots: wham

References

• “whōm, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.