Whatever vs. Whatsoever

Another thing I noticed while reading Watership Down a while back, was the use of whatever. The word was used in a way I’m accustomed to, such as:

• Whatever it was, it was only just outside.
• Do whatever you like.

And this way, which is now less common:

• … whatever do you mean?
• Whatever are you doing…?

Neither of the above uses made me bat an eye. But it was the use of whatever in these examples (and more) that stuck out to me every time I saw them:

• … they had no purpose whatever…
• … a matter of no importance whatever…
• … no one is to go outside for any reason whatever.

I’ve seen and probably heard whatever used this way before, but it’s so unfamiliar to me that it always sounds like a mistake. In my mind, it should be whatsoever: “no purpose whatsoever”, or “for any reason whatsoever”. So I did some digging. Not that I thought Richard Adams was wrong (not to mention the editors and publishers of the book), but more to see why it sounds so wrong to me. Is it a British/American thing? Is this an archaic use? Watership Down was written in 1972, so it’s certainly not that old.

I didn’t come up with much. Which was surprising to me… usually when an English word or phrase sounds odd to me, there’s a myriad of articles about it because it sounds odd to many other people as well.

The two words do have the same meaning. Often the dictionary definition of whatsoever is simply: whatever. Whatsoever is the older of the two words; the first known use dated in the 13th century, while whatever came about in the 14th century. Whatsoever is a bit of a mouthful, so it would make sense that we would cut it down to whatever. 

So why, in 2017, am I still hanging on to whatsoever, while Richard Adams, in 1972, had already kicked it? Some of what I’ve read (and perhaps my UK readers can chime in if this isn’t the case) claims that when it comes to the emphatic use combined with a negative (eg., none whatsoever) whatever is more common in British English, while whatsoever remains more common in American English. There are still Americans writers who prefer to use whatever in this case, and British writers who prefer whatsoever, of course. If whatsoever is indeed used less in British English, it does seem a bit strange. Whatsoever just sounds more British to me, and American English generally makes words shorter rather than longer.

I can’t say that this is something I’ve noticed particularly in British TV shows and movies. I feel like I would have made the connection. Perhaps part of the reason “in no way whatever” sounds wrong to me is that I don’t watch enough British media? Maybe I should be more well-read? Neither way is wrong, so whichever word feels natural to you is probably the word you should be using. Maybe I should just chill out about the whole thing. Like, you know, whatever.