somewhat
adverb
- to a small degree
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsʌmwɒt/ / /ˈsʌmwʌt/
adv
Etymology: From some + what.
- To a limited extent or degree; not completely.
“The crowd was somewhat larger than expected, perhaps due to the good weather.”
“The decision to shave or not is a somewhat personal one.”
- Very.
“That hat seems somewhat small for him.”
“Two of the coaches are still on the site of the line; one, a first class observation coach carrying the S.R. number 6991, is at Snapper Halt, where it still stands, in fair condition but somewhat weatherbeaten […]”
noun
Etymology: From some + what.
- A certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something.
“Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost.”
“To these ladies a man often recommends himself while he is commending another woman; and, while he is expressing ardour and generous sentiments for his mistress, they are considering what a charming lover this man would make to them, who can feel all this tenderness for an inferior degree of merit. Of this, strange as it may seem, I have seen many instances besides Mrs Fitzpatrick, to whom all this really happened, and who now began to feel a somewhat for Mr Jones, the symptoms of which she much sooner understood than poor Sophia had formerly done.”
- A person or thing of importance; a somebody.
“c. 1810-1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Troilus and Cressida Pity that the researchful notary has not either told us in what century, and of what history, he was a writer, or been simply content to depose, that Lollius, if a writer of that name existed at all, was a somewhat somewhere.”
“Am I to blame for this, / That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha! / They think that I am somewhat. What am I?”
pron
Etymology: From some + what.
- Something.
“Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand, As if in minde he somewhat had to say […]”
“a. 1716, Robert Trail, sermon on the Lord's Prayer But this text and theme I am upon, relates to somewhat far higher and greater, than all the beholdings of his glory that ever any saint on earth received.”