whose
/huːz/ determiner, pronoun
Also a form of who
- determiner (interrogative) Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's. “Whose (wallet) is this?”
- determiner (relative) Of whom, belonging to whom. “This is the man whose dog caused the accident.”
- determiner (relative) Of which, belonging to which. “We saw several houses whose roofs were falling off.”
- pronoun (interrogative) That or those of whom or belonging to whom. “Several people have lost their suitcases. Whose have you found?”
- pronoun (relative) That or those of whom or belonging to whom. “This car is blocking the way, but Mr Smith, whose it is, will be here shortly.”
Etymology
From Middle English whos, from Old English hwæs, from Proto-Germanic *hwes, genitive case of *hwaz (“who”) *hwat (“what”).
Webster’s 1913
- pronoun The possessive case of who or which. See Who, and Which.
Etymology [OE. whos, whas, AS. hwæs, gen. of hwa. See Who.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whose”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details