| 释义 |
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.
c1450Godstow Reg. 606 Þ⊇ seyde Roger & hys wyfe & hys heyrys sholde haue power to..gyfe þe seyde londe to whom-so-euyr þey wolden. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxxv. 206/1 Whome so euer he hytte full, wente to the erthe. 1539Bible (Great) Gen. xxxi. 32 With whome soeuer thou fyndest thy goddes, let hym dye. 1812Byron Ch. Har. i. l, Whomsoe'er along the path you meet Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. vi. iii. 170 Whomsoever the electors choose they will have acknowledged rightful emperor. 1867tr. C'tess Hahn-Hahn's Fathers of Desert 62 Whomsoever men serve, by him will they be guided.
2. = whomever b; cf. whosoever 2.
a1631Donne Serm. lxxxviii. (1649) II. 64 Whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 1068 O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give eare To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfet Mans voice. 1790Cowper Let. to S. Rose 30 Nov., The zeal and firmness of your friendship to whomsoever professed. 1832Lewis 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.
1584in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. V. 87 To take parte with the Catholike Church against whomesoever. 1609E. Hoby Let. to T. H. 6 To answere you, or any Fugitiue Romified Renegado whomsoeuer. 1641Milton Reform. i. 33 He counts it lawfull in the bookes of whomsoever to reject that which hee finds otherwise then true. 1856Hawthorne Engl. Note-bks. (1870) II. 114 Overjoyed at seeing anybody whomsoever. 1881Spedding 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.).
1560Whitehorne tr. Machiavelli's Art of War 84 Thei..punished with death, whom so euer obserued not the same order. 1621Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 98 In him, whomsoeuer he be, that shall abet, maintaine, or broach them. 1631Heylin St. George 170 A man that saw as cleerely, as any whomsoever. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 437 The literal sense ought not to be countenanced,..in whomsoever is susceptible of the other. 1877Ruskin Fors Clav. lxxiv. VII. 37 They shall not be impeded by whomsoever it may be. |