a whole nother
det/ə ˈhəʊl ˌnʌðə/UK/ə ˈhoʊl ˌnʌðəɹ/US
Etymology
Either from a + whole + nother (“different, other”), where nother is a variant of other, rebracketed from an other, or from whole + another, with whole having been inserted by tmesis. Compare also dialectal tother from Middle English þe toþer (“the other”).
Definitions
An intensified form of another
An intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.
- "Will the fog be gone by to-morrow morning?" said Patty, disconsolately. "I don't know what we shall do if we have to be a whole 'nother day in the house and in the dark."
- It's a whole nother bunch of folks over beyond the trees 'cross the tracks.
- They say she look like she have a turtle shell on her back and the healing woman healed that. But that's a whole nother story.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for a whole nother. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA