somewhy
adv/ˈsʌmwai/ · /ˈsʌmʍai/
Etymology From some + why, in analogy with somewhere, somehow etc.
1
Rare For some reason.
- Out of the drift of facts, whereby you learn What some was, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy?1864, Robert Browning, “Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"”, in Wikisource, line 505, retrieved 18 Jan 2012:
- I loved them both—but not so very much else in the book—but I read them over twice & thought—somewhy—of Highland Park & our quaint little trips to Los Angles^([sic]) & elsewhere thereabouts on the street car.1988, William Morris, 1924, quotee, edited by Thomas P. Riggio, Letters to Women: New Letters, Reprint edition, University of Illinois Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 179:
3 more examples
- Somewhy I've always had this stupid idea that something or something or somebody awful is waiting here for me.2003, Cameron Royce Jess, Bearer of the Chose Seed (Fiction), Inscape Publications, →ISBN, page 15:
- But somehow, somewhy, he did something and that woman knew it. And somehow, somewhy on a whole lot of other days he doesn't do anything we can see ...2008, Margaret Feinberg, “Bring Them to Me”, in The Sacred Echo, Zondervan, →ISBN, page unk:
- Or is it actually him? Still holding on somewhere, somehow, somewhy.2011, Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies (Fiction), Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 92: