Timeline for "Old Mr. Bunny had no opinion whatever of cats." What does it mean?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 11, 2012 at 18:51 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Well, "nothing what(so)ever" is clearly a steeply declining usage in both countries over the last century. I can't say either version sounds particularly "funny" to me, but for something like this I certainly wouldn't go out on a limb and claim that other Brits would either agree or disagree. Having said that, although the single-word response "Whatever" is also perfectly common among younger Brits, I must say that one sounds typically "American" to me. | |
| Nov 11, 2012 at 18:30 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @FumbleFingers I know what you say you see, but I also know what I know I hear. “Nothing whatever” does not make sense to an American. It sounds funny. | |
| Nov 11, 2012 at 18:29 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Taking the more common collocation nothing what(so)ever, I still don't see any significant difference between British and American trends or prevalence. And on both sides of the pond, nothing at all has always been far more common. | |
| Nov 11, 2012 at 18:13 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @FumbleFingers The difference is that to an American, no opinion whatever has come to sound ungrammatical/broken/foreign/confusing/mysterious. I have never heard an American say something like that. We would just say no opinion at all, unless we wanted to go over the top and add in the -so- particle to have no opinion whatsoever. There is also room for an infix emphatic particle like no opinion whatso#$%!@ever. | |
| Feb 24, 2012 at 18:40 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Comparting NGrams for British against American usage for "no opinion whatever/whatsoever" doesn't suggest any significant US/UK difference. All I see is that the dominant "whatever" is on the wane, so relatively speaking, "whatsoever" is gaining ground. | |
| Feb 24, 2012 at 17:55 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @TEd Perhaps. | |
| Feb 24, 2012 at 17:51 | comment | added | TEd | Thanks! In the context could it mean "he wasn't scared of cats"? | |
| Feb 24, 2012 at 17:48 | history | answered | tchrist♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |