soever

Soever is an archaic English particle that expresses universality or indefiniteness, meaning “to any extent” or “in any way.” It is typically attached to interrogative or relative words to form compounds with broad scope, such as whosoever (anyone who), whatever (anything that), wherever (anywhere), and howsoever (in whatever manner). In modern usage, the standalone particle is rare; these forms appear mainly in formal, religious, or literary contexts, or in fixed phrases that have become fossilized.

Origin and form: The element -soever emerged in Old English and Middle English as a fusion of so or such with ever, functioning as a suffix that expands the base word’s meaning. In late English, many -soever compounds are written as single words (whosoever, whatsoever, whensoever, however), though older texts may show segmentation or hyphenation. The sense remains broadly equivalent to modern equivalents such as whoever, whatever, wherever, and however, which have largely supplanted many of the older -soever constructions in everyday language.

Usage notes and examples: In biblical or archaic prose, one encounters sentences like “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord…” or “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.” In contemporary writing, authors typically replace -soever forms with the corresponding -ever forms or other pronouns, depending on context. The -soever forms persist in legal language and formal rhetoric, particularly in phrases such as “whatsoever” or “whomsoever,” to emphasize breadth or totality.

See also: whosoever, whatever, wherever, however, whensoever, whatsoever.