Meanings
- obsoleteWhatever, whatsoever.
Whatso looks lovelily / Is but the rainbow on life's weeping rain. / Why have we longings of immortal pain, / And all we long for mortal?
1889, Francis Thompson, “Ode to the Setting Sun”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume I (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 1251 more example
So she went out to fetch her needful from the Bazar and Alaeddin retired to his chamber and taking the Lamp rubbed it, when forthright appeared to him its Slave and said, "Ask, O my lord, whatso thou wantest."
1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC
- abbreviationclippingnot comparableobsoleteClipping of whatsoever.
Origin
- Old Englishhwæt swā
- Middle Englishwhatso
- Englishwhatso
From Middle English whatso, from Old English hwæt swā; equivalent to what + so.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
whatso. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whatso
“whatso.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whatso. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whatso,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whatso.
Source: whatso on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.