Etymograph

English

what

What comes from Old English hwæt ‘what’, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód ‘what’, and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European interrogative root *kʷ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷ-1‘interrogative root’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷód1‘what’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hwat1‘what’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hwat1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hwæt1‘what’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500what1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1596what1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English what
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto IX: “They prayd him sit, and gave him for to…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷ-Wiktionary, English what‘interrogative root’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷódWiktionary, English what‘what’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hwatWiktionary, English what‘what’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hwatWiktionary, English whatreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hwætWiktionary, English what‘what’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500whatWiktionary, English what
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1596whatWiktionary, English what. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto IX: “They prayd him sit, and gave him for to…”

The story

Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Malaysian and Singaporean Englishes is analogous to Malay apa and Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with what, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- ‘the primary interrogative root’

  • which ← hwelċ ← *hwilīkaz ← *hwaz ← *kʷos
  • who ← hwā ← *hwaʀ ← *hwaz ← *kʷos
  • whether ← hweþer ← *hwaþar ← *hwaþeraz ← *hwaz
  • whose ← whos ← hwæs ← *hwes ← *hwaz
  • whom ← hwām ← *hwammai ← *hwaz ← *kʷos
  • neutral ← neutrālis ← neuter ← uter ← *kʷoteros
  • quantity ← quantite ← quantité ← quantitās ← quantus
  • ubiquitous ← ubīquitās ← ubīque ← ubī̆ ← cubī
  • whence ← whennes ← hwanon ← *hwananā
  • rapunzel ← raponzolo ← rapa ← rāpa ← neuter
  • ubiquity ← ubīquitās ← ubīque ← ubī̆ ← cubī
  • whither ← whider ← hwider ← *hwadrê ← *kʷos

25 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

det Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “what”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- / what