somebody

pron, noun — 4 senses

somebody

pron

UK /ˈsʌmbˌɒdi/ · US /ˈsʌmˌbədi/

Etymology From Middle English sum body, equivalent to some + body.

1

Some unspecified person.

Somebody has to clean this mess up.

2

Synonym of someone; an important person.

He could have been somebody!

Synonyms: someone
Derived terms: somebodiness, somebody else
Related terms: nobody, everybody, anybody, somewhere, something

somebody

noun

Etymology From Middle English sum body, equivalent to some + body.

1

Any person.

In the nature of things a good many somebodies are always in hospital, and the law of averages had picked on me to be one of them a week or so before.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 7:
So there, I know, was somebody or a combination of somebodys who did not know what the heck they were doing or dealing with.1974, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture, Agriculture and the Fuel Crisis: Hearings..., page 88:

2

A recognised or important person, a celebrity.

I'm tired of being a nobody – I want to be a somebody.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.