From PIE *kwod (neuter interrogative) — opens Beowulf as 'Hwaet!' (Listen!), surviving in the surprised 'What!'
Asking for information specifying something; the thing or things that.
From Old English 'hwæt,' from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from PIE *kʷod, the neuter form of the interrogative-relative pronoun *kʷo-/*kʷe-. This ancient pronoun root is among the most widespread in all of Indo-European, generating interrogative words across the entire family: Latin 'quod' (what), Greek 'poti' (who), Sanskrit 'ka' (who/what), Old Irish 'cid' (what), and Lithuanian 'kas' (who/what). The initial 'hw-' of Old English reflects the Proto-Germanic shift from PIE *kʷ-. Modern English 'what' has shed