Vocabulary: Wherefore

"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

No, Juliet is not asking Romeo where he is. Juliet is asking Romeo WHY he is Romeo. Why is he a Montague, an enemy of her family.

Wherefore means "why."

We don't use "wherefore" much anymore in our everyday vocabulary; okay, no one really uses the word anymore at all. So, wherefore did I decide to write a post about a word that is pretty much obsolete in our modern vocabulary?

Because I wanted to. *wink*

Now you can watch the scene in Romeo and Juliet, if you didn't know what it meant before, notice how the scene changes.