English Explanatory Dictionary

what gives

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. What is wrong? Why is this happening?
  2. What is happening? What is going on?
  3. How are you?

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-what gives.wav

Word forms

what gives

Etymology

First attested in 1940, in John O'Hara's novel Pal Joey. The term is considered by the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition (2013) and several other references to be a calque of German “was gibt's?” and/or a Yiddish equivalent. Brian Joseph disputes this, and speculates that despite extremely late attestation, it and the German was gibt's may "allow[] for a reconstruction of a Proto-West-Germanic existential use of 'give', which survives marginally into present usage."

Related words

what's cooking what's up with what's with
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