nowise

English

WOTD – 16 August 2012

Etymology

From Middle English nowyse, no-wyse, no wyse, equivalent to no (“none, not any”) +‎ wise (“way, manner”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnoʊwaɪz/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnəʊwaɪz/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊwaɪz, -oʊwaɪz

Adverb

nowise (not comparable)

1. (archaic or dialect) (In) no way, (in) no manner, definitely not.

   Synonym: nohow

   • 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The present time”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets:

     To raise the Sham-Noblest, and solemnly consecrate him by whatever method, new-devised, or slavishly adhered to from old wont, this, little as we may regard it, is, in all times and countries, a practical blasphemy, and Nature will in nowise forget it. Alas, there lies the origin, the fatal necessity, of modern Democracy everywhere.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Heads or tails”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 445:

     But that did in nowise mend the matter, or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone.

   • 1904, James A. Crichton, transl., Compendious Syriac Grammar‎^[1], London: Williams & Norgate, Preface to the First Edition, page XI; translation of Theodor Nöldecke, Kurzgefasste Syrische Grammatik, second edition, Leipzig, 1898:

     The division into paragraphs aims in nowise [translating durchaus nicht] at logical consistency : […]

   • 1996 summer, Raymond Jarvi, “Hjalmar Söderberg on August Strindberg”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 68, number 3, page 343:

     His article was received with keen interest by Fredrik Vult von Steijern, the newspaper's cultural editor, who in turn paid the writer an honorarium of twenty crowns — nowise a modest sum at that time — despite the fact that the article never appeared in Dagens Nyheter.

   • 2006 fall, Nate Haken, “Dolphins Dancing Somewhere off the Coast of Cuba”, in The Massachusetts Review, volume 47, number 3, page 410:

     I am going to create a trigger to the feelings of nostalgia, that this time at sea will nowise be lost.

Related terms

• -wise
• alwise

Translations

in no manner

• Armenian: ոչ մի դեպքում (očʻ mi depkʻum), ոչ մի կերպ (očʻ mi kerp)
• Bulgarian: по никакъв начин (po nikakǎv način)
• Dutch: in geen geval, absoluut niet
• Finnish: ei millään tavalla, ei mitenkään
• French: d'aucune façon
• Georgian: არავითარ შემთხვევაში (aravitar šemtxvevaši)
• German: auf gar keinen Fall
• Ido: nule (io), nulamaniere (io)
• Portuguese: de forma alguma
• Romanian: nicidecum (ro)
• Russian: ни при каки́х обстоя́тельствах (ni pri kakíx obstojátelʹstvax), никак (ru) (nikak)
• Spanish: de ninguna manera, de ningún modo, en absoluto (es)
• Turkish: hiçbir biçimde

Anagrams

• winoes