What*ev"er (?), pron.
Anything soever which; the thing or things of any kind; being this or that; of one nature or another; one thing or another; anything that may be; all that; the whole that; all particulars that; -- used both substantively and adjectively.
Whatever fortune stays from his word.
Shak.
Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields.
Milton.
Whatever be its intrinsic value.
J. H. Newman.
⇒ Whatever often follows a noun, being used elliptically. "There being no room for any physical discovery whatever" [sc. it may be].
Whately.
© Webster 1913.