nohow
advEtymology From no + how.
1
Nonstandard In no way; not at all; by no available means.
African-American Vernacular
- "We don't see it here nohow," returned the man.1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter V, in Treasure Island:
- “Oh, dear, oh dear,” she said, “my stepmother has sent me all this long way to fill this sieve with water from the Well of the World’s End, and I can’t fill it no how at all.”1890, Joseph Jacobs, “The Well of the World’s End”, in English Fairy Tales, page 216:
3 more examples
- Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent.1950 June 24, Walt Kelly, Pogo:
- "You'd start bidding before you knew what you was doing. I won't permit it nohow."1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 73:
- And his face clouded. “I don't know. I got to find out. Looks like I can't get my mind straight nohow.”1953, James Baldwin, “Elizabeth’s Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published October 1970, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints), page 167:
- Derived terms
- nohowish