I. (|)hü, _ü pronoun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hwā; akin to Old High German hwer, interrog. pron., who, Old Swedish hvar, Gothic hwas, Latin quis, interrog. pron., who, qui, rel. pron., who, Greek tis, interrog. pron., who, Sanskrit ka
1. : what person or persons : which person or persons — used as an interrogative pronoun in direct or indirect questions and serving to ask for specification
who were appointed to serve on the committee
tell me who was elected president
or to ask for identification
who is that at the door
find out who they are
or to question someone's character, status, authority, or antecedents
who are you to give orders to us
or to represent a personal name not properly heard or understood
Mrs. who
or to introduce a rhetorical question implying the answer no one or nobody
who cares
who wouldn't
by the cut of my clothes, the pattern of my shoes and who knows what unconscious attributes, he recognized me as an American — Saul Bellow
— used by speakers on all educational levels and by many reputable writers, though disapproved by some grammarians, as the object of a verb or a following preposition
who did I see but a Spanish lady — Padraic Colum
who do you think I got a letter from — Walt Whitman
do not know who the message is from — G.K.Chesterton
or less frequently as the object of a preceding preposition
between who — Shakespeare
stolen from who — Ruth Park
— compare what , whom , whose
2.
a. : any person or persons that : whoever — used with or without a correlative substantive in a following main clause
who tells me true, though in his tale lie death — Shakespeare
who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offered, shall never find it more — Shakespeare
his almost obsessional anxiety for personal sincerity, suffer who may — Sean O'Faolain
— used without criticism as the subject of the clause that it introduces; used by speakers on all educational levels and by reputable writers, though disapproved by some grammarians, as the object of a verb in the clause that it introduces
I serve who I like — Irish Digest
— compare what , whom
b. archaic
(1) : the particular person or persons that : he, she, or those that
a fair wrought car …: who stood therein did seem of great renown — John Keats
(2) plural in construction : some persons that — used after there
if there be who convulsively insist upon it — Walt Whitman
3. — used as a function word to introduce a restrictive or nonrestrictive relative clause and to serve as a substitute within that clause for the substantive modified by that clause; used especially in reference to persons
any reader who wishes to join with me in this argument — J.E.Baker
novelists who write … as they must — Malcolm Cowley
my father, who was a lawyer
but also in reference to groups
Congress, who can always speak more precisely — C.P.Curtis
a generation who had known nothing but war — R.B.West
the English firms who opened branches in New York — Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt
or in reference to animals
these were a pair of owls, who … showed little sign of alarm — Nathaniel Hawthorne
one of those dogs who … fawn all over tramps — Nigel Balchin
or in reference to inanimate objects especially with the implication that the object is felt to have personality
dolls of an older age bracket, who are supposed to provide a little girl with a feeling of having a younger sister — New Yorker
or with the implication that the reference is really to a person or persons possessing or producing or operating the object
a number of deep southern accents who assert that they have been immensely impressed — Blake Clark
a late legendary accretion, contradicted by earlier sources who maintain a Davidic ancestry — F.M.Cross
the plaintive woodwinds who opened the passage — Marcia Davenport
— sometimes used after such with the implication that the action or state expressed in the clause introduced by who is a real or appropriate consequence of what is expressed by such or by the phrase containing such
such who … no beauty lack — Shakespeare
— used universally and without criticism as the subject of the clause that it introduces; used by speakers on all educational levels and by many reputable writers, though disapproved by some grammarians, as the object of a verb in the clause that it introduces
old peasants … who , if isolated from their surroundings, one would expect to see in a village church — John Berger
or less frequently as the object of a preceding or following preposition in the clause that it introduces
of who I know nothing — Raymond Paton
— compare that IV 1, which , whom , whose
•
- as who
- as who should say
- who is who
II. ˈhü noun
( -s )
: the person or persons involved or meant or referred to
I shall ask the next banana peddler the who and the why of it — Carl Sandburg