"whatever" as an interjection

[Tzu's Son]

Just a point of curiosity. Anyone recall about when the word "whatever" entered the language as an informal interjection, indicating indifference or scorn for what someone has said? I suspect that the "indifference" meaning predates the "scorn" meaning, but maybe not. "Bill, you're not exercising enough!" "Whatever."

I was born in the late 40s and it seems like I didn't start hearing the "scornful" use until the 70s, but I'm usually way off on such things. Whatever.

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

I wouldn't call it an interjection unless it's used to interrupt someone else because you don't like what they're saying. Otherwise, I would call it a sarcastic reply/comment, simply meaning "I'm not remotely interested in what you have to say".

I would say it became popular in its sarcastic form (in the UK) somewhere around the late 1990s but I don't remember specifically when I started hearing it.

The 7-second video here shows it in the form I saw/hear most frequently when I remember it appearing.

 

[Tdol]

It is a fairly recent thing and would give it a similar age to Emsr2d2. I didn't hear it used when I was young.

 

[Tarheel]

Whatever! is shorthand for: "I don't want to waste time arguing with you, but you're wrong.

 

[probus]

I was born in the late 40s and it seems like I didn't start hearing the "scornful" use until the 70s, but I'm usually way off on such things. Whatever.

That chronology seems about right to me. I never heard whatever used in that way until the late 70's or early 80s

 

[jutfrank]

As somebody who grew up in England, I agree with emsr2d2 and Tdol in dating its rise to some time in the 1990s. I suspect it may have come to us from the US.

 

[Tdol]

Maybe we were late to the whatever party.

 

[emsr2d2]

Whatever!

 

[jutfrank]

Yeah, whatevs.