Let's Not Misuse It — Wherefore

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

This line is probably the best known line from Romeo and Juliet, perhaps the best known of all Shakespeare's works. It probably is the most misunderstood line as well.

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

The house of Montague is in a long running feud with the Capulets, Juliet's family. So it's rather distressing to when Juliet when she discovers that that cute boy, Romeo, she became smitten with is one of the Montagues. To her, it's the height of cosmic unfairness when she discovers her romance is doomed before it can even start because the roulette wheel of fate slapped him with the name and family of her family's enemies. That line begins her musings on whether names and labels are so important.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

So, the point is she wasn't asking where Romeo is. In that line at the beginning, she was asking rhetorically (and venting a little bit), why must he have been born Romeo Montague. Wherefore isn't the word "where" for people who need to fill out nine squares on a crossword puzzle. Wherefore is an archaic form of why?

John Gruber learned this yesterday when he titled an article, "iPhone SDK, iPhone SDK! Wherefore Art Thou iPhone SDK?"

Comments

[sumware]

My Dutch born wife was the only one around here who knew the correct meaning of 'wherefore'.


Apparently, 'waarvoor' is the identical word in Dutch and is used more commonly - though not very commonly - in that language.

[Karsten Selleri]

And the Danish word 'hvorfor' – the h isn't pronounced – is the standard word for 'why', put together by the words 'hvor' (where) and 'for' (for). I love etymology.

[shadesOgray]

"...distressing to when Juliet when she..."  ???

[keith]

[this is good] And, of course, in german you have 'wofür' meaning 'why' and made of words 'wo' and 'für' meaning 'where' and 'for' respectively. 

[mlowry]

In Swedish, the most commonly used word for ‘why’ is ‘varför,’ which translated bit-by-bit means ‘wherefore.’