Meaning
Whatever happens; used to signal firm resolve to see a plan through regardless of obstacles or consequences. Neutral to rhetorical register, often attached to a vow or decision, with no real drift from Shakespeare's use. Resolute and slightly rhetorical; a staple of vows, manifestos and stubborn personal declarations. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
In Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3 (first performed around 1605-06), Macbeth closes an aside after the witches' prophecies with 'Come what come may, / Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.' The Folger text confirms the line, and the fuller early form was 'come what come may'. The Phrase Finder shows the sentiment predates Shakespeare: a French forerunner appears as early as 1375 in John Barbour's The Bruce ('avalze que valze', modern French 'vaille que vaille', let it avail what it may), and the Spanish 'que sera sera' is likewise described as old. So Shakespeare gave English its enduring wording of an old continental sentiment rather than inventing it; the shortened form was established enough to appear in the New York Times by 1878.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- come what come may
- come what might
- let come what may
- whatever may come
Usage Examples
- Come what may, we will keep the clinic open through the winter.
- He signed the lease on the studio, come what may.
- She told the board she would stand by the recall decision, come what may.