|
Home
|
Nov 16, 2010
This week's themeAdverbs This week's words in situ wherefore ex gratia therewithal in toto Missed a word? Check the archives chronological alphabetical plaintext or search the site 
Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XML
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargwherefore
PRONUNCIATION:
(HWAIR-for)
MEANING:
adverb:
For what reason?noun: Reason or purpose. ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English, a combination of where + for. The word often appears
in the phrase "the whys and wherefores (of something)", meaning its reasons.
First recorded use: c. 1200.
USAGE:
"Love is the most dunderheaded of all the passions; it never will listen
to reason. The very rudiments of logic are unknown to it. 'Love has no
wherefore,' says one of the Latin poets."Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Kenelm Chillingly; 1873. See more usage examples of wherefore in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. -J.M. Barrie, novelist and playwright (1860-1937)
|
|
Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2024 Wordsmith