Please define "wholenuther"

[yjoeyh]

I've heard the term "wholenuther" used repeatedly on the podcast. Who started saying this? I'm not even sure what it means. Do you mean, "whole other," "another," or is it a contraction for "whole another?" I guess that doesn't make sense though.

[Angela]

I've heard the term "wholenuther" used repeatedly on the podcast. Who started saying this? I'm not even sure what it means. Do you mean, "whole other," "another," or is it a contraction for "whole another?" I guess that doesn't make sense though.

It's what happens when you take "whole" and put it inside "another."
As in, "That cake is so good, I'm going to have a whole nuther piece!"

Very useful phrase, but grammatically impossible. I'd love to hear a linguist explain it.

[humanguy]

I always though it means "completely different." Like some people might be talking about jazz and someone says "What about Kenny G" and someone answers "That's a whole other kind of music."
Now "wholenuther," no, you never say that. That's just wrong. It's a whole other way of talking, the wrong kind of way!

[tirtlegrrl]

Like, you know, whatever. Hehe.

I too have been puzzled by the use of "whole 'nuther"...I think it means "whole extra." Just saying "another" doesn't convey the sense of extra-ness and saying "a whole other" just means "completely different." In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker protests against his uncle Owen's request to remain on his moisture farm for one more season--he says "but it's a whole 'nuther year!" He obviously thinks that another year is waaay too long to stick around so he sticks "whole" in front of it. So I know what the phrase means, but grammatically it's pretty silly. There is no such thing as a "nuther" to be described as "whole."

[Angela]

I think it means "whole extra." Just saying "another" doesn't convey the sense of extra-ness and saying "a whole other" just means "completely different."

Well said, tirtlegrrl, that's it exactly.

In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker protests against his uncle Owen's request to remain on his moisture farm for one more season--he says "but it's a whole 'nuther year!" He obviously thinks that another year is waaay too long to stick around so he sticks "whole" in front of it. So I know what the phrase means, but grammatically it's pretty silly. There is no such thing as a "nuther" to be described as "whole."

I don't care how "grammatically silly" it is. It's conveys something better than more grammatically correct constructions, so I'm all for it. I hope to see it in the dictionary someday.

[JustJim]

Hmmm... that'd be a whole nuther kinda dictionary!



Jim

[Angela]

Hmmm... that'd be a whole nuther kinda dictionary!



Jim

Well, I agree that whole nuther (or whole nother?) is a harder case than some, but it could happen. Anyone know when "ain't" was added to the dictionary?

Among the new words in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition, is:
celebutante
n. a celebrity who is well known in fashionable society.
– origin 1930s: blend of celebrity and debutante.

If new words and constructions are useful, then people tend to use them, and if people use them long enough, they tend to be added to dictionaries.

[yjoeyh]

In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker protests against his uncle Owen's request to remain on his moisture farm for one more season--he says "but it's a whole 'nuther year!"

LOL - I forgot about that one.
That's 10 points off for Luke.
I suppose since I brought it up, I have to start being the wholenuther police. I even heard it on the radio this morning on my ride in. I only subtracted 8 points for Bubba from the Rick & Bubba show. I figure anyone named Bubba should be given a discount. Is that mean? Sorry all you Bubba's out there! Look on the bright side. At least now you're points aren't as expensive.

Now, on a similar note, does it bother anyone else to hear people say that they "could care less," when it seems they mean to be implying that they couldn't?

[Rian]

Yes, that's a funny one! I just smile ... I know what they mean, although they're saying the exact opposite of what they mean!

[NH Baritone]

OK, the term "awholenother" (usually now written with spaces: "a whole nother") is an example of an "infix."

Most of us learned of "prefixes" (e.g., pre-, post-, un-, or mis-) & "suffixes" (e.g., -ness, -ful, -ing, or -hood) in grammar school.

However, the world's languages contain myriad examples of modifiers that are inserted mid-word, i.e., infixes. English has lost most of them. Because they are relatively rare, we write them with spaces, resulting in the occasional puzzling idiom. Thus, even though we write "a whole nother," but the term began as the infix of "whole" into "another."

Still, English speakers haven't abandoned the practice altogether. Examples of this in colloquial English include the irony laden "edumacated" and the expletive laden, "unfuckingbelievable."

[tirtlegrrl]

Or the one I use often (usually in sarcasm): fan-FREAKIN-tastic.