Wiktionary

nowhere

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English nowher, from Old English nōhwēr, nāhwǣr, from nā- + hwǣr, equivalent to no +‎ where.

Adjective usage is taken from phrases like nowhere on the map, signifying the location was too small or too insignificant to be listed, and nowhere you want to be.

PronunciationEdit

AdverbEdit

nowhere (not comparable)

  1. In no place.
    Nowhere did the rules say anything about popcorn.
  2. To no place.
    We sat in traffic, going nowhere.

TranslationsEdit

AdjectiveEdit

nowhere (not comparable)

  1. Unimportant; unworthy of notice.
    • 1872, “Reviews of Postal Publications”, in The Stamp-Collector's Magazine, volume 10, page 110:
      As a foreign stamp gazette it is nowhere. An article on Stamp Collecting, by J. E. Gray, “reprinted from one of his books,” and a catalogue of stamps constitute its sole attraction. We are surprised to find such sounding pretentions so poorly supported.
    • 2008, Cricket Sawyer, Lavender Lust, →ISBN, page 180:
      Elinore was such a bitch, such a nowhere person.
    • 2012, Nicholas Borelli, Let No Man Be My Albatross, →ISBN, page 247:
      He always allowed them to motivate him to a level of intensity to do better, rather than remain in a nowhere life in a nowhere place like Harlem.

AntonymsEdit

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NounEdit

nowhere (plural nowheres)

  1. No particular place, noplace.
    They went on a cruise to nowhere.
    • 1912, Charles Inge, “Nemesis or Bad Luck?”, in The Windsor magazine, volume 36, page 95:
      While they paced the platform of the station, they reviewed the career of misdemeanours—Nutley, Chiddiugstone, Midhurst, Penn, and many nowheres, and now Aylesbury.
    • 1976, Don Schlitz (lyrics), “The Gambler”:
      On a warm summer's evening On a train bound for nowhere I met up with the gambler
    • 1996 Oct, Indianapolis Monthly, volume 20, number 2, page 115:
      Oh, not the middle of nowhere like the rest of Indiana, but a nowhere so flat and ugly you want to lie down in a ditch and never get up again.
    • 2005, Dave Finkelstein; Jack London, Philip Caputo, Greater Nowheres: Wanderings Across the Outback, page xxiv:
      But some Nowheres do still exist and are there to be found by any genuinely free spirit willing to hook a caravan behind his four-wheel-drive and dream, say, of finding that isolated campsite beside an as yet undiscovered waterhole

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