different between whorl vs who

English

Etymology

From alteration of whirl (verb).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wûrl, IPA^(key): /w??(?)l/
• Rhymes: -??(r)l
• Homophone: whirl

Noun

whorl (plural whorls)

1. A pattern of concentric circles.
2. (botany) A circle of three or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
3. (zoology) A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
4. (anatomy) Any volution, as for example in the human ear or fingerprint.
5. A flywheel, a weight attached to a spindle. [from c. 1460]

Translations

Verb

whorl (third-person singular simple present whorls, present participle whorling, simple past and past participle whorled)

1. (intransitive) To form a pattern of concentric circles.

References

• whorl in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• whorl in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• whorl, Glossary of Terms, American Rhododendron Society

English

Etymology

From Middle English who, hwo, huo, wha, hwoa, hwa, from Old English hw? (dative hw?m, genitive hwæs), from Proto-Germanic *hwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *k?os, *k?is.

The sound change /hw/ > /h/ (without a corresponding change in spelling) due to wh-cluster reduction after an irregular change of /a?/ to /o?/ in Middle English (instead of the expected /??/) and further to /u?/ regularly in Early Modern English. Compare how, which underwent wh-reduction earlier (in Old English), and thus is spelt with h.

Compare Scots wha, West Frisian wa, Dutch wie, Low German we, German wer, Danish hvem, Norwegian Bokmål hvem, Norwegian Nynorsk kven, Icelandic hver.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ho?o, IPA^(key): /hu?/
• Rhymes: -u?

Pronoun

who (singular or plural, nominative case, objective whom, who, possessive whose)

1. (interrogative) What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone. (used in a direct or indirect question)

   Who is that? (direct question)

   I don't know who it is. (indirect question)

2. (interrogative) What is one's position; asks whether someone deserves to say or do something.

   I don't like what you did, but who am I to criticize you? I've done worse.

3. (relative) The person or people that.

   Her sister who worked here is an enemy of his.
4. (relative) Whoever, he who, they who.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, act III, scene 3

     Who steals my purse steals trash.

   It was a nice man who helped us.

Usage notes

• Who is a subject pronoun. Whom is an object pronoun. To determine whether a particular sentence uses a subject or an object pronoun, rephrase it to use he/she or him/her instead of who, whom; if you use he or she, then you use the subject pronoun who; if you use him or her, then you use the object pronoun. The same rule applies to whoever and whomever.

• Who can also be used as an object pronoun, especially in informal writing and speech (hence one hears not only whom are you waiting for? but also who are you waiting for?), and whom may be seen as (overly) formal; in some dialects and contexts, it is hardly used, even in the most formal settings. As an exception to this, fronted prepositional phrases almost always use whom, e.g. one usually says with whom did you go?, not *with who did you go?. However, dialects in which whom is rarely used usually avoid fronting prepositional phrases in the first place (for example, using who did you go with?).

• The use of who as an object pronoun is proscribed by many authorities, but is frequent nonetheless. It is usually felt as much more acceptable than the converse hypercorrection in which whom is misused in place of who, as in *the gentleman whom spoke to me.

• For more information, see "who" and "whom" on Wikipedia.

• When “who” (or the other relative pronouns “that” and “which”) is used as the subject of a relative clause, the verb agrees with the antecedent of the pronoun. Thus “I who am...”, “He who is...”, “You who are...”, etc.
• Formerly sometimes with partitive of, where which is ordinarily used

Translations

Noun

who (plural whos)

1. A person under discussion; a question of which person.

Determiner

who

1. (interrogative, dialect, African-American Vernacular) whose

   Who phone just rang?

Anagrams

• How, how

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wha, hwoa, huo, hwo

Etymology

From Old English hw?, from Proto-West Germanic *hwa?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Pronoun

who

1. who

Descendants

• English: who
  • Northumbrian: whee, wheea
• Scots: quha, quhay, wha
• Yola: fho

References

• “wh?, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.