whatten

English

Etymology

Originally a contraction of what kind (of) (the DSL traces the Scots cognate back to Middle English whatkin, whatkyn, but the MED's only example is of the two-word collocation what kyn),^[1]^[2] later used in place of bare what.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /wɒtən/, /wɑtən/

Pronoun

whatten

(Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, dialect, archaic) What.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:whatten.

Related terms

whatna

References

Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “WHATTEN”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.

^ “whatten”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
^ “what-kin, pronoun.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Anagrams

wanteth

[1] “whatten”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

[2] “what-kin, pronoun.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[1]

[2]