whatten
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
whatten
- (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, dialect, archaic) What.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:whatten.
Related terms[edit]
References[edit]
- Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “WHATTEN”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
- ^ “whatten” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
- ^ “what-kin, pronoun.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.