The headline reads, "When the whichness of the what is really only a well-drained drip" (The Gateway, 1970). While reminding ourselves of the origin of "the whichness of the what," we encountered these variations:
The whichness of the what and abstract ain'tness of the not, and the correctness of the is.(Norris Clarion Sprigg, Sprigs of Poetry, 1907)
The Whichness of the What, as compared to the Thatness of the Thus.
(G. E. Farrow, The Wallypug of Why, 1895)
The whichness of the what and the whitherness of the wherefore.
(Elsie Lincoln Benedict & Ralph Paine Benedict, How to Analyze People on Sight, 1921)
The whichness of the what and whereforeness of the why.
(The Evening Statesman, 1903)
The whichness of the what—the howness of the when—the whereness of the whatever.
(The Gateway, 1930)
The whichness of the what of which nothing is any whicher.
(Eben Leavitt, 1938)
The Whyness of the Wherefore and the Whichness of the What.
(Georgetown Daily, 1909)
The whichness of the what and all that sort of thing.
(Buffalo Morning Express, 1919)
