260 What’s More and Whatever
b. the barber hinting that this would be a safe proceeding, because the captain
was necessarily a party disinterested, and, what was more , could not, from
the nature of the present case, make anything by a breach of trust. All of
which was listened to with some surprise and concern (1857 Melville, The
confi dence- man Ch. 43, p. 368 [UofV])
c. He rubbed his eyes, examined into the fact, and really found that while he
had been dreaming of other matters, she had actually grown into a woman,
and what was more , had fallen in love (1824 Irving, Tales of a traveller
p. 63 [UofV])
9.3.3 What’s More Adj
The earliest examples of parenthetical what’s more Adj are contemporaneous
with those of non- complemented what’s more , dating from the very end of the
sixteenth century:
(13) a. and what is more miserable , they are so blind, they know it not. (1590
Holland, A treatise against vvitchcraft [EEBO])
b. And what is more strange , he has but one Heart; (1651 Randolph, A pleas-
ant comedie [EEBO])
c. and, what is more horrible , they would take the dead carcases of such as
had been suffocated and dryed in the sands of Arabia, and call them Mumy
(1657 de Renou, A medicinal dispensatory [EEBO])
d. and what is more sordid , he doth not oversee the Kitchin, to make this
Gelly, or that Broth (1658 Starkey, Natures explication and Helmont’s vin-
dication [EEBO])
e. And what is more wonderful , some have lo their privities by witchcraft,
(1662 Sennert, The sixth book of practical physic [EEBO])
f. But, what is more grievous , Men don’t only value themselves upon
Qualities which would make’em Ridiculous, (1695 Abbadie, The art of
knowing one- self [EEBO])
Table 9.2 Relative frequency of what was more and what’s more over the centuries awhat was more [comma] what ’s/ is more [comma]n Percentage n Percentage
17th century a 8 5.9% 127 94.1%
18th century 9 14.3% 54 85.7%
19th century 55 12.0% 405 88.0%
20th century 104 8.4% 1136 91.6%a. The seventeenth- century data are based on BYU- EEBO, the eighteenth- century
data on CLMET3.0, and the nineteenth- and twentieth- century data on COHA.