whatever; whatsoever.
Part A: Intensive Use.
As an intensive (meaning “at all”), “whatsoever” is an established idiom in American English {he had no reason whatsoever}, though it is obsolescent in British English.
Still, many American stylists prefer the shorter word, “whatever” — e.g.: “OPIC provides no grants or free benefits of any kind to any company or individual. None whatever.” Stuart E. Eizenstat, “‘Corporate Welfare’ or Savvy Policy?” Wash. Times, 23 July 1997, at A15.
B. “Whatever” as an Interjection.
“Whatever” has become a “Valley Girl” epithet for “Whatever you say.”
For information about the Language-Change Index click here.
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Quotation of the Day: “Among the innovations that are currently noticeable may be mentioned such prolixities as ‘at this moment in time’ for ‘now’ and the use of ‘situation’ preceded by an abstract noun to replace an adjective. A pregnant woman is described as being in a ‘pregnancy situation,’ and the owners of a theatre, hoping that it will stop losing money, say that it will soon be in a ‘profitability situation.'” G.L. Brook, Words in Everyday Life 169 (1981).
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