whomsoever, pron. literary.
(huːmsəʊˈɛvə(r))
Also poet. whomsoe'er (-ˈɛə(r)).
The objective case of whosoever. (More freq. than whomever.)
1. = whomever a (with or without correlative): cf. whosoever 1.
| c 1450 Godstow Reg. 606 Þ⊇ seyde Roger & hys wyfe & hys heyrys sholde haue power to..gyfe þe seyde londe to whom-so-euyr þey wolden. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxxv. 206/1 Whome so euer he hytte full, wente to the erthe. 1539 Bible (Great) Gen. xxxi. 32 With whome soeuer thou fyndest thy goddes, let hym dye. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. l, Whomsoe'er along the path you meet Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. vi. iii. 170 Whomsoever the electors choose they will have acknowledged rightful emperor. 1867 tr. C'tess Hahn-Hahn's Fathers of Desert 62 Whomsoever men serve, by him will they be guided. |
2. = whomever b; cf. whosoever 2.
| a 1631 Donne Serm. lxxxviii. (1649) II. 64 Whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1068 O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give eare To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfet Mans voice. 1790 Cowper Let. to S. Rose 30 Nov., The zeal and firmness of your friendship to whomsoever professed. 1832 Lewis Use & Ab. Pol. Terms x. 117 A national government is when the sovereign power, by whomsoever exercised, extends over the whole country. |
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.
| 1584 in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. V. 87 To take parte with the Catholike Church against whomesoever. 1609 E. Hoby Let. to T. H. 6 To answere you, or any Fugitiue Romified Renegado whomsoeuer. 1641 Milton Reform. i. 33 He counts it lawfull in the bookes of whomsoever to reject that which hee finds otherwise then true. 1856 Hawthorne Engl. Note-bks. (1870) II. 114 Overjoyed at seeing anybody whomsoever. 1881 Spedding Even. with Rev. I. 130 A true soldier, prepared to defend his position against whomsoever, friend or enemy. |
¶ Used ungrammatically for whosoever, chiefly by attraction to the case of the unexpressed antecedent (him, etc.).
| 1560 Whitehorne tr. Machiavelli's Art of War 84 Thei..punished with death, whom so euer obserued not the same order. 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 98 In him, whomsoeuer he be, that shall abet, maintaine, or broach them. 1631 Heylin St. George 170 A man that saw as cleerely, as any whomsoever. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 437 The literal sense ought not to be countenanced,..in whomsoever is susceptible of the other. 1877 Ruskin Fors Clav. lxxiv. VII. 37 They shall not be impeded by whomsoever it may be. |