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whatnot

UK/ˈwɒt.nɒt/US/ˈwʌt.nɑt/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,988 of 15,258mostly spoken

Whatnot means assorted other things not worth naming separately. And whatnot, papers and whatnot, all that whatnot.

It appears at the end of a list, doing the same job as et cetera but sounding casual rather than formal. The older sense is a piece of furniture: a stand of open shelves for ornaments, which was called a whatnot because it held anything.

Definitions of whatnot

  1. 1nounwhatnotAssorted other things not worth naming separately.C1

    “The kitchen drawer was full of old keys, batteries, string and whatnot.”

whatnot is an assortment.

Also accepted in games: sundries

Where it comes from

From what + not.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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