'It’s
true that this expression is in an interrogative form that is not normally
found in contemporary English. It uses inversion rather than the auxiliary verb
do. We would normally expect: What do you have? (or,
in the UK at least,
What have you got?)
It’s
a colloquial way of saying, in the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition,
‘anything else (similar) that there may be, or that one can think of’, or even,
simply, 'etcetera'.
It’s
of US origin, and the
Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest citation is from the 'New Yorker' magazine in 1925.
A
synonymous phrase to this is:
...and
what not.
>>
There were phones, laptops, and what have you.
>>
The programme would involve students, bricklayers, teachers and what not.
No comments:
Post a Comment