[Properly an ellipt. interrog. phr. (see first quot. below, and cf. WHAT A. 5).]
1. Usually and preferably as two words: Anything whatever; everything; ‘anything and everything’; ‘all sorts of things’: mostly, now only, as final item of an enumeration: = anything else, various things besides. (Also occas. of persons.)
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, V. ii. Y iij b. Excesse of fleshely pleasures … hath taken awaye all thynges … my goodes or substance, my name .i. my good name and fame, my frendes, my glory .i. my renoume or estimation, what not? .i. what thyng is it that she hath not taken from me?
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 185. His minde was so altered, his conditions so changed, and what not in him so alienated.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., V. ii. 110. Marrie peace it boads, and loue, and quiet life, An awfull rule, and right supremicie: And to be short, what not, that’s sweete and happie.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. iv. I have … Borne out the shock of war, and done, what not, That valour durst.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 21 Dec. The strange variety of people … bakers, brewers, butchers, draymen, and what not.
1718. Pope, Lett. (1735), I. 263. Our evening Walks in the Park, our amusing Voyages on the Water, our Philosophical Suppers, our Lectures, our Dissertations, our Gravities, our Reveries, our Fooleries, on what not?
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. xix. 46. A Gentleman … who is my Master, and thinks himself intitled to call me Bold-face and what not.
1849. in B. Gregory, Side Lights (1898), 462. Well off with the profits of his books and whatnot.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. iii. The blessed king’s rosaries, the medals which he wore, the locks of his hair, or what not.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxix. 391. We had our chops and what not in the parlour of the inn.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xiii. Fencing, dam-making, cattle-droving, what not.
1911. Athenæum, 24 June, 711/1. They were too apt to go to law and fight over their lands and fishing rights and what-not.
b. A thing or person that may be variously named or described; a nondescript. rare.
1602. How Chuse Good Wife, V. i. I 2. Why you Iacke sawce, you Cuckold, you what not.
1903. Alice M. Earle, Two Cent. Costume Amer., II. 481. Besides the furbelows and prétintailles, or ‘whatnots,’ were hurly-burlies and fanfreluches.
¶ Confusedly used in pl. for ‘various things.’
a. 1861. T. Winthrop, Life in Open Air (1863), 53. Passengers who are constantly to make portages will not encumber themselves with what-nots.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, ix. I profess to be an impartial chronicler of poor Phil’s fortunes, misfortunes, friendships, and what-nots.
2. An article of furniture consisting of an open stand with shelves one above another, for keeping or displaying various objects, as ornaments, curiosities, books, papers, etc.
1808. Sarah, Lady Lyttelton, Corr. (1902), 54. The old chairs, tables, what-nots, and sofas.
1831–4. R. S. Surtees, Jorrocks’s Jaunts (1838), 330. There was a ‘what not’ on the right of the fire-place.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5674. Canterbury what-not.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home, About Warwick, I. 140. Such delicate trifles as we put upon a drawing-room table … or a whatnot.
