: an answer or statement giving an explanation : reason
wants to know the whys and wherefores
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Wherefore and Shakespeare
In early English, a number of new words were formed by combining where with a preposition. In such words, where had the meaning of "what" or "which"—hence, wherein ("in what"), whereon ("on what"), and wherefore ("for what"). Although wherefore as an adverb is rarely used today, the noun form, meaning "an answer or statement giving an explanation," survives in the phrase "the whys and wherefores."
Adverb it was getting late, and wherefore we decided to move on Noun demanded to know the whys and wherefores for the decision
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
As in most of Tim and Eric’s sketch humor, there are few whys and wherefores. Austin Considine, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2020 Julian Fellowes, a master writer who understands so well all the peculiarities of time and place, manners and historical significance of the whys and wherefores of his fictional inhabitants, is to be applauded.Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2019 In addition to gleaning the why and wherefore behind America’s foundational document, teenage listeners will meet up with the Declaration of Independence and a roster of seminal Supreme Court decisions. Louis Bayard, New York Times, 28 May 2018 The book casts its spell in revealing the whys and wherefores of the killings, as investigated by Burke’s onetime high school classmate, Rob Barrett, a Boston FBI agent whom Burke likes nothing better than to humiliate. Lloyd Sachs, chicagotribune.com, 21 May 2018 Harris will explain the whys and wherefores of rituals and the choreography of services.Courant Community, 5 June 2017
Word History
Etymology
Adverb
Middle English wherfor, wherfore, from where, wher + for, fore for