hain't
See also: haint
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Contraction
[edit]hain’t
- (dialectal, archaic) has not
- 1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna[1], L.C. Page, →OCLC:
- "But he never speaks ter anybody, child—he hain't for years, I guess, except when he just has to, for business, and all that."
- (dialectal, archaic) have not
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
- “Doan’ hurt me — don’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for ’em. You go en git in de river agin, whah you b’longs, en doan’ do nuffn to Ole Jim, ’at ’uz awluz yo’ fren’.”
- (dialectal, hypercorrect) ain’t
Usage notes
[edit]Hain’t originally derived from han’t, and meant has not and have not. In certain h-adding modern dialects, hain’t is synonymous with, and a replacement for, ain’t in all its uses.