contr. (poet.) where’er, adv., conj. Originally as two words (and so still in sense 1); subsequently often with hyphen, where-ever (where-e’er), etc.; now always in contracted spelling wherever (where’er), the final e of where coalescing with the initial e of ever. [f. WHERE + EVER adv. 8 d, e.]
1. interrog. An emphatic extension of where? implying perplexity or surprise. Now colloq.
More properly written as two words: see EVER adv. 8 d.
[971. Blickl. Hom., 167. Hwær aʓylte he æfre on his ʓeʓerelan, se þe mid þon anum hræʓle wæs ʓeʓyrwed þe of olfenda hærum awunden wæs?]
c. 1275. Lay., 26127. Þo hii þat heued iseȝen, sellich heom þohten ware euere onder heauene soch heued were ikenned.
c. 1435. Torr. Portyngale, 625. ‘Seynt Marre,’ seyd the chyld so fre, ‘Wher euyr my jentyll squyer myght be, That I with me to wod browght?’
1864. T. A. Trollope, Beppo, III. vi. Where ever am I to find a girl that can pull me up out of my chair in the way you do?
1875. Parish, Sussex Dial., s.v. Mask, Why! you’re one mask! Wherever have you been?
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xvii. Wherever did the cayenne come from?
2. rel. At (or (or to) any place at which.
Occas. introducing a subject-clause = any place at which; also with correlative there, thither.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4672. Ioseph … Did gader sariantz and squier … Quar-euer þat [Gött. Quare þat euer] þai funden were.
1382. Wyclif, Luke xvii. 37. Where euere the body schal be, also the eglis schulen be gederid to gidere thidur.
1508. Dunbar, Flyting, 67. Quhnir evir we meit thairto my hand I hecht, To red thy rebald ryming with a rowt.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. iii. 141. Good Vnckle helpe to order seuerall powres To Oxford, or where ere these Traitors are.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 423, ¶ 2. Where-ever you are Damon appears also.
1796. Burney, Mem. Metastasio, I. 227. Wherever a great personage happens to be, will become the principal place.
1857. Pusey, Real Pres. Doctr. Engl. Ch., iii. 325. Wherever our Lord and Saviour is, there He is to be adored.
1882. Besant, All Sorts, xxviii. Wherever there are Englishmen, working, fighting, or sporting, there are some of those families among them.
b. ellipt. (with loss of relative force): At any place whatever, at some place or other. Now rare or Obs.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 449. Not onely to the Sons of Abrahams Loines … but to the Sons Of Abrahams Faith wherever through the world. Ibid. (1671), P. R., IV. 404. Our Saviour … Hungry and cold betook him to his rest, Wherever, under some concourse of shades Whose branching arms … might shield … his shelter’d head.
3. To (or at) any place to which; whithersoever.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 741. Send me quhare-ewyr þu wil.
c. 1375. Cursor M., 1154 (Fairf.). Wiþ al þou sal be halden vile Quare-euer [Cott. Quarsa] þou comys in exile.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 302. Myn arme is roted awey þat was wont to peynte an ymage of þe whereuer I went.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 25. Quhair evir he raid he was convoyit with ane thowsand horsmen.
1692. Prior, Ode Imit. Hor., x. Where-e’er old Rhine his fruitful Water turns.
1740. Gray, Lett. to his Mother, 2 April. I desire you to give my duty to my father, and wherever else it is due.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 147. Wherever he came, the gentry flocked round him.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., iii. ‘Don’t you want to go there!’ ‘Where, sir?’ ‘Where? Why, wherever you are going,’ said the gentleman.
4. Introducing a qualifying (equivalent to conditional or disjunctive) dependent clause, often with verb in subjunctive: In (or to) whatever place; whether at one place or another; no matter where.
c. 1430. Syr Tryam., 1461. In worlde where ever he be bestedd, And he wyste of thys case, Hyddur he wolde take hys pase.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., June, 99. Flye to my loue, where euer that she bee.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 170. Of other Creatures, as him pleases best, Wherever plac’t, let him dispose.
1703. Earl Orrery, As you find it, II. ii. 28. Whereever they come from,… they have perform’d very well.
1771. Mrs. Griffith, Hist. Lady Barton, I. 45. I should not chuse to be farther removed from that blessed spot, where ere it be.
1854. J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. xxii. 352. England claimed the right of visiting and searching merchant ships, to whatever nation belonging, whatever the cargoes, wherever the destination.
1854. Mrs. Jameson, Comm.-pl. Bk., 69. Unhappy that nation, wherever it may be, where the question is yet pending between servitude and civil war!
5. gen. or fig. In any case, condition or circumstances in which (cf. WHERE 10 b).
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. v. 87. Phe. Why I am sorry for thee gentle Siluius. Sil. Where euer sorrow is, reliefe would be.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, VI. 246. Whereever he hath receded from the Mosaick Account of that Earth, he hath … receded from Nature, and Matter of Fact.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., xx. For wherever there is genius there is pride.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 422. Whereever the state of the patient’s strength is sufficient to undergo the process…, it ought frequently to be practised.
1884. Fairbairn, in Congregationalist, April, 288. Wherever the laws of mechanics rule, necessity rules; wherever necessity rules, freedom is absent.
