pron.; also poet. whomsoe’er. literary. The objective case of WHOSOEVER. (More freq. than WHOMEVER.)

1

  1.  = WHOMEVER a (with or without correlative): cf. WHOSOEVER 1.

2

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 606. Þe seyde Roger & hys wyfe & hys heyrys sholde haue power to … gyfe þe seyde londe to whom-so-euyr þey wolden.

3

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxxv. 206/1. Whome so euer he hytte full, wente to the erthe.

4

1539.  Bible (Great), Gen. xxxi. 32. With whome soeuer thou fyndest thy goddes, let hym dye.

5

1812.  Byron, Ch. Har., I. l. Whomsoe’er along the path you meet Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue.

6

1856.  R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. VI. iii. 170. Whomsoever the electors choose they will have acknowledged rightful emperor.

7

1867.  trans. C’tess Hahn-Hahn’s Fathers of Desert, 62. Whomsoever men serve, by him will they be guided.

8

  2.  = WHOMEVER b; cf. WHOSOEVER 2.

9

a. 1631.  Donne, Serm., lxxxviii. (1649), II. 64. Whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all.

10

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 1068. O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give care To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfet Mans voice.

11

1790.  Cowper, Lett. to S. Rose, 30 Nov. The zeal and firmness of your friendship to whomsoever professed.

12

1832.  Lewis, Use & Ab. Pol. Terms, x. 117. A national government is when the sovereign power, by whomsoever exercised, extends over the whole country.

13

  3.  With loss of relative force: Any one at all (now rare or obs.); also qualifying the preceding word (now usually replaced by whatever): cf. WHOSOEVER 3 a, b.

14

1584.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V. 87. To take parte with the Catholike Church against whomesoever.

15

1609.  Sir E. Hoby, Lett. to T. H., 6. To answere you, or any Fugitiue Romified Renegado whomsoeuer.

16

1641.  Milton, Reform., I. 33. He counts it lawfull in the bookes of whomsoever to reject that which hee finds otherwise then true.

17

1856.  Hawthorne, Engl. Note-bks. (1870), II. 114. Overjoyed at seeing anybody whomsoever.

18

1881.  Spedding, Even. with Rev., I. 130. A true soldier, prepared to defend his position against whomsoever, friend or enemy.

19

  ¶  Used ungrammatically for WHOSOEVER, chiefly by attraction to the case of the unexpressed antecedent (him, etc.).

20

1560.  Whitehorne, trans. Machiavelli’s Art of War, 84. Thei … punished with death, whom so euer obserued not the same order.

21

1621.  Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 98. In him, whomsoeuer he be, that shall abet, maintaine, or broach them.

22

1631.  Heylin, St. George, 170. A man that saw as cleerely, as any whomsoever.

23

1768.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 437. The literal sense ought not to be countenanced,… in whomsoever is susceptible of the other.

24

1877.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., lxxiv. VII. 37. They shall not be impeded by whomsoever it may be.

25