a whole nother

See also: a whole 'nother

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Variant of another,[1] with insertion of whole by tmesis. Compare nother (“different”, adj.), which is largely obsolete. Compare also dialectal tother from Middle English þe toþer (“the other”).

Determiner

a whole nother

  1. (informal, US) An entirely different; a whole other; intensified version of another.
    • 1890, Mary Louisa Molesworth, “The Mysterious Guide”, in The Story of a Spring Morning, and other tales, →OCLC, page 315:
      I don't know what we shall do if we have to be a whole 'nother day in the house and in the dark.
    • 1998, Gayl Jones, The Healing, →ISBN, page 18:
      But that's a whole nother story.
    • 2005, Margo Lanagan, “Rite of Spring”, in Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, Gavin J Grant, editors, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, →ISBN, page 19:
      A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:a whole nother.

References
  1. “nother, adj.2 and pron.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2003.
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