Whoso
/ˈhuː.suː/noun
An archaic or literary pronoun meaning whoever or anyone who.
Did you know?“Whoso” appears in the King James Bible and other religious texts, giving the word an incantatory, prophetic aura while simply meaning “whoever.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kʷo-
“An interrogative stem meaning who, what, or which”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*hwaz
“Who; the Germanic interrogative pronoun”
Old English
Old English
hwā swā
“Who so; whoever, literally a combination of “who” and “so””
Middle English
Middle English
whoso
“Whoever; anyone who”
16th–17th Century
English
whoso
“A literary or biblical form meaning whoever”
Modern English
English
whoso
“An archaic or poetic word for whoever”