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whereon

whereon

1 9.2
On what thing someone bases a decision or idea
  • adverb
  • /ˈwɛrˌɒn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : sobre qué

Examples

  • - O gentle son, say whereon do you look.

  • Arid will be each land whereon thou shalt live!...

  • Whereon do you look?

  • If the image of Paul Rodriguez can be a site whereon to negotiate differences from the Anglo and commonalities among the "Hispanic," then how do we weigh any popular uses of it against its commercial placement on the cover of Tradiciones de Familia?

    Academic text (1996)
  • Can you tell me whereon this decision is based?

  • The report explained whereon the conclusions were drawn.

  • She wondered whereon his strange behavior relied.

Synonyms

where
vswhereon
1.0

Asking about the place of a person or thing

asks about the basis or reason rather than physical location
on what score
vswhereon
  • Archaic
8.3

Asking what reason someone gave for a decision

is used for asking the general thing or basis behind actions

Surface Forms

whereon positive

Morphology

whereon = where (transparent) = on + where

The meaning is directly derived from 'where' and 'on', indicating the basis or location of something. [Postprocessing: moved 'on' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Whereon is simply where + on, so it literally means 'on what'; imagine asking 'on what' basis someone made a decision. That's why it is used in questions to ask about the thing or basis on which something is done.