WHOM

pronoun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hwām, dative of hwā who Date: before 12th century see: who Usage: Observers of the language have been predicting the demise of ~ from about 1870 down to the present day . Our evidence shows that no one—English or not—should expect ~ to disappear momentarily; it shows every indication of persisting quite a while yet. Actual usage of who and ~—accurately described at the entries in this dictionary—does not appear to be markedly different from the usage of Shakespeare's time. But the 18th century grammarians, propounding rules and analogies, rejecting other rules and analogies, and usually justifying both with appeals to Latin or Greek, have intervened between us and Shakespeare. It seems clear that the grammarians' rules have had little effect on the traditional uses. One thing they have accomplished is to encourage hypercorrect uses of ~ . Another is that they have made some people unsure of themselves .