who

Meanings

Pronoun

• What person or people; which person or people; .
• Whoever, he who, they who.

Noun

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

Origin

• From Middle English who, hwo, huo, wha, hwoa, hwa, from Old English hwā (dative hwām, genitive hwæs), from Proto-Germanic *hwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷis.
• The sound change > (without a corresponding change in spelling) due to wh-cluster reduction after an irregular change of to in Middle English (instead of the expected ) and further to 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.