Talk:whomst

(now chiefly Internet slang and humorous)

However the example from 1884 cannot be internet slang or humorous, so what meaning is attributed to such usage? --Backinstadiums (talk) 11:04, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

As stated, it means "who or whom". In the 1884 citation it refers to the pilgrims. Equinox ◑ 12:10, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

It makes sense as a joke or confusion, but what on earth did minor poet William Reid think he was doing? Taken seriously, the form makes no sense at any stage of English. There are three kinds of -(e)st suffix and none ever had any reason to be attached to who(m). --80.169.223.146 12:26, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

I think it makes perfect sense in English, it's obviously a variant of who(m). Whether or not it has a "reason" to exist is irrelevant. He used it, and presumably every literate English speaker who has ever read it, including us, knew what it meant. --2A00:23C6:CC00:7D00:C4E3:453:9C15:441 03:44, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Words don't usually pop out of nowhere: they are formed in some way (derivation, affixing, etc.). Why would you randomly put -st onto a word? It suggests the -est verb form (thou goest etc.) being misused or misunderstood. Equinox ◑ 04:05, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Appendix:Glossary#excrescent, like amongst. 185.180.44.244 14:27, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm removing the "internet slang" remark on a notability pretext. I had definitely heard the word before it become a meme, and I still think of it as an archaic term before I think of it as an internet meme. Obviously I'm not an authority, but then again presumably neither is the person who made the original edit. Let's stick to the null hypothesis here. 109.7.226.47 18:58, 7 February 2020 (UTC)