Timeline for Is “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet” a common or respectable English expression?
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| Sep 19, 2016 at 17:18 | answer | added | Hot Licks | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 12:17 | history | edited | Helmar |
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| Jan 15, 2015 at 2:55 | comment | added | Mitch | The term 'double negative' is usually used to refer to the kind of phrase you ask about, where 'nothing' is used instead of the more formal 'anything'. That's about it. If, however, you hear two negative words together "I will never not eat breakfast", it is truly meant literally and logically (that I will always eat breakfast). This latter kind of phrase might literally have two negatives, but it would be misleading to call it a 'double negative' since that term describes the informal usage of 'nothing' instead of 'anything' (or 'no' instead of 'any' or 'a'). 'double negative' is a set phrase | |
| Jan 15, 2015 at 2:23 | answer | added | Tony | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 13, 2015 at 15:20 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | In most cases, you should give up trying to understand repeated negatives literally in English (unlike in Japanese). You'll only injure yourself trying to keep track of them anyway. If I suddenly had a serious change of lect and said, “Ain't nobody never had no time for no none of that, yaw!” and you tried working out logically whether someone actually does or doesn't have time, you'd miss dinner before you'd figured it out. I wouldn't even have a clue myself. It's just all negative. | |
| Jan 13, 2015 at 14:28 | answer | added | Simon Drew | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 24, 2014 at 20:41 | history | edited | Andrew Leach♦ |
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| Dec 18, 2014 at 7:42 | comment | added | bof | "You ain't seen nothin' yet" is fine, but "wide variety" makes me wince. | |
| Dec 18, 2014 at 1:30 | comment | added | user39425 | I ain't never gonna be able to hear this phrase again without having to sing this song. | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 22:53 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | In addition to the valuable answers I received from our colleagues, I found the definition and examples of "double negative" including "You ain't nothin yet" provided in the Free Dictionary comprehensible through the search I made after posting this question. | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 22:41 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Dec 17, 2014 at 22:06 | vote | accept | Yoichi Oishi | ||
| Dec 17, 2014 at 11:45 | comment | added | Matt E. Эллен | Related: Meaning of “Ain't Seen Nothing Yet” | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 8:06 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/545127815931502593 | ||
| Dec 17, 2014 at 7:34 | comment | added | Octopus | Try googling "double negative as an intensifier". Despite what your English teachers wanted you to believe its use is very common colloquially. | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 6:31 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Dec 17, 2014 at 5:19 | history | edited | Erik Kowal | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Dec 17, 2014 at 5:14 | history | edited | Erik Kowal | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Attached the URL of the article to the first mention of the latter; added the year to the date of the NYT edition
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| Dec 17, 2014 at 5:12 | answer | added | John Feminella | timeline score: 13 | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 5:12 | answer | added | Chris Sunami | timeline score: 47 | |
| Dec 17, 2014 at 5:00 | history | asked | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |