whom

Etymology

From Middle English whom, wham, from Old English hwām, hwǣm, from Proto-Germanic *hwammai, dative case of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Scots wham (“whom”), German wem (“whom, to whom”), Danish hvem (“who, whom”), Swedish vem (“who, whom”).

pron

1. (interrogative) What person or people; which person or people.
   1. As the object of a verb.
      Whom did you ask?
   2. As the object of a preposition.
      To whom are you referring?
      With whom were you talking?
      He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
2. (relative) Used to refer to a previously mentioned person or people.
   That is the woman whom I spoke to earlier. (defining)
   Mr Smith, whom we all know well, will be giving the speech. (non-defining)
   He's a person with whom I work. (defining)
   We have ten employees, half of whom are carpenters. (non-defining)
   “Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke[…]whom the papers are making such a fuss about.” 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court
3. (fused relative, archaic outside set patterns) The person(s) whom; whomever.
   To whom it may concern, all business of John Smith Ltd. has now been transferred to Floggitt & Runne.