Preponderance vs Whatever - What's the difference?
preponderance | whatever |
Excess or superiority of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.
* Macaulay
*
* 1900 , Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams'', ''Avon Books , (translated by James Strachey) pg. 168:
(obsolete) The excess of weight of that part of a cannon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.
The greater portion of the weight.
*
The majority.
*
(lb) Unexceptional or unimportant; blah.
*1996 , "Mathias", Lake Placid Comments'' (discussion on Internet newsgroup ''rec.music.phish )
*:All in all, I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but the rest of the show, imho, was very whatever -ish.
*2007 , (Avril Lavigne), , (The Best Damn Thing) ,
*:She's like so whatever / You can do so much better
(lb) At all, absolutely, whatsoever.
:
*
*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
No matter which; for any
(relative) Anything that.
* 1734 , (Alexander Pope), (An Essay on Man)
*
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (colloquial, dismissive) A holophrastic expression used discourteously to indicate that the speaker does not consider the matter worthy of further discussion.
Anything; used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options.
As a noun preponderance
is excess or superiority of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.As an adjective whatever is
unexceptional or unimportant; blah.As a determiner whatever is
no matter which; for any.As an interjection whatever is
a holophrastic expression used discourteously to indicate that the speaker does not consider the matter worthy of further discussion.As a pronoun whatever is
anything; used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options.preponderance
English
Alternative forms
*Noun
- In a few weeks he had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of one power had destroyed.
- But even less disgruntled observers have insisted that pain and un-pleasure are more common in dreams than pleasure: for instance, Scholz (1893, 57), Volkelt (1875, 80), and others. Indeed two ladies, Florence Hallam and Sarah Weed (1896, 499), have actually given statistical expression, based on a study of their own dreams, to the preponderance of unpleasure in dreaming.
References
* *whatever
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Determiner
(en determiner)- And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.
- Whatever utility the work may have outside of its stated boundaries will be largely because of such a nonprovincial approach.
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
Derived terms
* whatever creams your twinkie * whatever floats your boat * whatever it takes * whateverism * whatevernessInterjection
(en interjection)- Parent: For the last time, brush your teeth!
- Child: Whatever !
Usage notes
* Tone of voice is particularly important here in playing up or playing down the dismissive quality of the word.Synonyms
* so what * whoopee do * mehPronoun
(English Pronouns)- I'll do whatever I can.
- Do you want Chinese or Mexican for lunch today? — Whatever .