nobodypron.n.
/ˈnəʊbədi/, /ˈnəʊbɒdi/, U.S. /ˈnoʊˌbɑdi/, /ˈnoʊbədi/ A. pron.
1.
a. No person; no one.Conventionally followed by the masculine third person singular pronoun, but cf. sense A. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun] > no one or nobody
noneeOE
none maneOE
no mana1200
nobodya1400
no onea1538
nullus1842
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 3049 (MED) Do no-body..despyte ne skaþe.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 183 (MED) No body bot he alone vnto þe Cristen cam.
?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 80 (MED) Sche putteþ hersilf to the flood..and abideþ nobody.
1484 W. Caxton tr. Subtyl Historyes & Fables Esope xi I wyll wel, yf thow wilt swere that thou shalt neuer reherce it to no body.
1490 W. Caxton tr. Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1885) iv. 120 And thenne the foure brethern wente vp to the hall, and met wyth noo bodi.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) 2 Kings vii. 5 And whan they came to the vttemost ende of ye tentes, beholde, there was no body.
1543 Chron. J. Hardyng f. xlviiiv If no bodye maye bee taken oute of sanctuary because he saieth he will abyde there.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 268 There was no body in them, but two fayre Damoselles.
1621 S. Ward Life of Faith ii. 7 He ingrosseth the common God to himselfe, as if his and no bodies else.
1663 A. Cowley Of Obscurity in Ess. in Verse & Prose In Places where they are by no body known.
1721 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius No. 40. 210 The advantages..are so palpable, that, at the bare mention of it, no body can be at a loss to perceive them.
1754 Bp. T. Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. iii. 135 Mysteries... Things which no-body can understand.
1791 A. Radcliffe Romance of Forest II. x. 88 Your father, nor nobody else has ever sent after you.
1813 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) XI. 136 I can send..nobody from hence to relieve you.
1857 G. Borrow Romany Rye II. App. viii. 328 Nobody can use his fists without being taught the use of them.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xvi. 108 Nobody knew anything of the state of the snow this year.
1885 Manch. Examiner 6 Nov. 5/3 The effort to please everybody usually results in pleasing nobody.
1927 E. Bowen Hotel vi. 69 He was singing angrily a song that nobody knew.
1951 J. Rhys Let. 29 Mar. (1984) iii. 85 Nobody wears red shoes here.
1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 17 June 6 c/3 Nobody in his right mind would have built a city on these precipitate hills.
2000 S. Broughton et al. World Music: Rough Guide II. i. 96/1 Certain styles of folk music..have displayed an adaptability which nobody would have predicted.
b. Followed by a third person plural pronoun, they, their, or them.
ΚΠ
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Luke 94 b No bodye will receiue you into their house.
1628 tr. P. Matthieu Powerfull Favorite 108 No body should dare to stretch out their arme, or present their bosome to receiue him.
1704 N. N. tr. T. Boccalini Advts. from Parnassus II. 13 Such Confusion, that no body knew what they were to do, or what to let alone.
1755 Bp. W. Warburton Lett. (1809) 201 Nobody has yet written against me, but at their own expence.
1831 W. Whewell in I. Todhunter Life II. 112 Nobody will know the origin of pliocene, &c., till you tell them.
1856 F. E. Paget Owlet of Owlstone Edge 9 Nobody likes to be turned out of quarters where they have lived snugly and comfortably for scores of years.
1879 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 3rd Ser. viii. 333 Nobody ever put so much of themselves into their work.
1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xviii. 205 Nobody ever used their very best china on my account before.
1975 I. Murdoch Word Child 18 Nobody singled me out, nobody gave me their attention.
1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) ii. 126 Nobody has their eye on that all-important diploma, let me tell you.
2. Not anybody of importance, authority, or social position. Chiefly as complement.
ΚΠ
1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. (1586) ii. 58 Many..who in speaking are verie well liked of..let them come to writing any thing, and they are no bodie.
1594 T. Nashe Vnfortunate Traveller sig. L3 He is no body that hath not traueld.
1608 S. Hieron 6 Serm. i. 12 If another had risen by him, and comen from no body, to be a man of some fashion and ability.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 11. ⁋4 I am used by some People as if Isaac Bickerstaff..was no Body.
1778 F. Burney Evelina III. iii. 34 Since I, as Mr. Lovel says, am Nobody, I seated myself quietly.
1847 F. A. Kemble Rec. Later Life III. 335 Miss ——, being only a banker's daughter, was of course ‘nobody’.
1871 J. S. Blackie Four Phases Morals 6 According to our aristocratic way of talking, she was nobody.
1911 J. London Mexican in Sat. Evening Post 19 Aug. 8/2 ‘Look here, you little fool,’ Kelly took up the argument. ‘You're nobody... You're unknown.’
1974 K. Millett Flying (1975) v. 487 Yesterday I..was eighty dollars worth of nobody.
2002 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 9 Feb. (Investing section) 3 They came from Sicily, where you are nobody until you have your house paid off.
B. n.
1. A person of no importance, authority, or social position.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > one who is unimportant
unknownc1390
pawnc1450
semi-cipher?1550
bauble1570
Jack with the feather1581
nobody1583
winterling1585
squash1600
rush candle1628
niflec1635
nullity1657
nonentity1710
featherweight1812
underscrub1822
nyaff1825
small fish1836
no-account1840
little fish1846
peanut1864
commonplacer1874
sparrow-fart1886
Little Willie1901
pipsqueak1905
nebbish1907
pie-biter1911
blob1916
smallie1930
no-count1932
zilch1933
Mickey Mouse1935
muzhik1945
nerd1951
nothingburger1953
nerk1955
non-person1959
no-mark1982
1583 T. Stocker tr. Tragicall Hist. Ciuile Warres Lowe Countries iv. 6 Persones..by whom the true enheritors..are disturbed, made no bodies, or vtterly disenherited.
1617 J. Minsheu Ἡγεμὼν είς τὰς γλῶσσας: Ductor in Linguas at Dwarfe A dwarfe, dumplin, a Nobodie.
1657 J. Trapp Comm. Neh. iv. 4 We are..nullified, as a company of No-bodies.
1770 S. Foote Lame Lover i. 10 There are..in this town a great number of nobodies.
1807 Sporting Mag. 29 239 The nobodies were never above a day behind in their imitations.
a1832 J. Bentham Fragm. on Govt. Pref. to ed. 2, in Wks. (1843) I. 256/1 No longer a great man, the Author was now a nobody.
1886 G. Meredith Let. 15 Nov. (1970) II. 838 In origin I am what is called here a nobody.
1899 Educ. Rev. Oct. 222 Which exasperates somebodies who feel they are treated as nobodies.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xii. [Cyclops] 308 And who was he, tell us? A nobody.
1950 G. B. Shaw Farfetched Fables 67 I replied that if he did not realize that without them he would be a nobody he was no gentleman.
1961 Bible (New Eng.) 2 Cor. xii. 11 In no respect did I fall short of these superlative apostles, even if I am a nobody.
1986 T. Tanner Jane Austen vi. 182 Why her obsession with this pretty little nobody from who-knows-where?
2. With capital initial. As a proper name, used variously in literature as a device to personify non-existence or to cloak in anonymity.In later use, often with reference to the Cyclops episode in Homer's Odyssey. Earlier translators used the phrase no man.
ΚΠ
1606 No-body & Some-body sig. C Clow. But Maister, why doe you goe thus out of fashion; you are euen a very hoddy doddy, all breech. Nobod. And no body.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iii. iii. 129 This is the tune of our Catch, plaid by the picture of No-body . View more context for this quotation
1686 J. Warr tr. Quintilian Declamations xix. 469 What I saw was but a mere Phantome, and..I imagined that I heard, what Mr. No-body spake.
1853 C. Dickens Another Round of Stories: Nobody's Story in Househ. Words Extra Christmas No., Dec. 36/2 So Nobody lived and died in the old, old, old way; and this, in the main, is the whole of Nobody's story.
1871 ‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-glass vii. 140 ‘I see nobody on the road,’ said Alice. ‘I only wish I had such eyes,’ the King remarked in a fretful tone. ‘To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!’
1956 ELH 23 289 Ulysses exploits [ambiguity]..by giving his name as ‘Nobody’. Polyphemos, having visible proof of the corporeality of this ‘nobody’, accepts the word in its poetic sense.
1999 L. A. Yamanaka (title) Name me Nobody.
Phrases
P1. nobody else: no other person; = no one else at no one pron. Phrases.
ΚΠ
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. f. cccviv/1 Howe for Urbane ye make warre and for no body els.
1779 F. Burney Let. 11 Jan. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1994) III. 221 I know of nobody else that calls me so.
1859 E. Bulwer-Lytton What will he do with It? (1st Edinb. ed.) III. vii. x. 108 Condemned to the painful choice between his society and that of nobody else.
2016 C. L. Tan Sarong Party Girls iv. 34 Just call me Jazeline... I know I made it up..but it's a name that nobody else has!
P2. Proverb. everybody's business is nobody's business and variants.
ΚΠ
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Ouvrage Euerie bodies worke is no bodies worke.
1655 I. Walton Compl. Angler (ed. 2) ii. 72 A wise friend of mine did usually say, That which is every bodies businesse, is no bodies businesse.
1698 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. IV. 10 That a thing that is so much every Body's Concern, should be almost no Body's Discourse.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 18. ⁋1 Because a Thing is every Body's Business, it is no Body's Business.
1725 D. Defoe (title) Every-body's business is no-body's business.
1828 T. B. Macaulay in Edinb. Rev. Sept. 103 The business of every body is the business of nobody.
1893 Catholic World Aug. 741 The feeling that what was everybody's business was nobody's business entirely disappeared.
1944 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 38 465 It is submitted that there should be an international clearing house; otherwise what is everybody's business will tend to become nobody's business.
1998 P. Jooste Dance with Poor Man's Daughter (1999) iii. 62 People are always talking about each other around here and nobody's business is everybody's business.
P3. colloquial.
a. (to be) nobody's business: (to be) something extraordinary.
ΚΠ
1839 Spirit of Times 8 June 163/1 As to eating, jist go to Snowden's, and the way you can git good things is nobody's business.
1931 E. Linklater Juan in Amer. 242 ‘How I love you is just nobody's business,’ she said.
1941 N. Marsh Death & Dancing Footman ii. 40 I look like death warmed up and what I feel is nobody's business.
1986 R. Sproat Stunning the Punters 130 Fairly busy for the early evening when I came in, but the atmosphere was nobody's business.
1997 High Life (Brit. Airways) Mar. 12/1 What he hasn't put into his body is nobody's business.
b. Originally U.S. like nobody's business: to an extraordinary degree, in no ordinary way; very much, fast, well, etc.; ‘like anything’.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely > remarkable or extraordinary > remarkably or extraordinarily
more than ordinary1560
and a half1636
out of (also beyond) (all) recognition1824
and how!1865
like nobody's business1930
1930 Boys' Life May 40/4 My arm was burning from the shoulder down, and the muscles were aching like nobody's business.
1938 P. G. Wodehouse Code of Woosters vii. 163 The fount of memory spouting like nobody's business.
1941 ‘N. Blake’ Case of Abominable Snowman xii. 132 Plays the piano like nobody's business.
1975 Times 20 Sept. 9/7 Poirot..adds..‘Never do I pull the leg.’ That, alas, is not true. He teased poor Hastings like nobody's business.
2003 L. Raphael German Money 117 Happens all the time. You're here, then you're gone [sc. dead] like nobody's business. Believe me, it's the best way to go.
P4. colloquial (originally U.S.). nobody home: there is an absence of intelligence and sense (referring to a dull, stupid, or mentally incompetent person). Now usually in the lights are on but there's nobody home and variants.
ΚΠ
1914 T. A. Dorgan in N.Y. Evening Jrnl. 11 Mar. 14 (cartoon) No he has no sense—nobody home nobody home.
1964 T. McGrath Crash Rep. in New & Sel. Poems II. 51 In five years the flesh fails; five years and then You can knock at his memory: nobody home.
1991 G. Burn Alma Cogan (1992) iii. 33 My mother..is still implacably with us, by the way, minus some of her marbles; the lights are on, as they say, but there's nobody home.
1999 M. Foley Mankind, have Nice Day! xxxvi. 481 It was still readily apparent that while the lights might have been on, there was nobody home.
Compounds
nobody's fool n. a sensible person who is not easily deceived.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > wisdom, sagacity > worldly wisdom > [noun] > one possessed of
man of the world1778
nobody's fool1857
sophisticate1923
1857 J. T. Trowbridge Neighbor Jackwood iii. iii. 41 Bein' I an't nobody's fool, I was nat'rally ruther anxious to know what it was all about.
1869 P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs xxxvii. 587 Miss Warren is nobody's fool.
1923 H. C. Witwer Fighting Blood xi. 323 Ryan is nobody's fool.
1940 N. Marsh Surfeit of Lampreys (1941) xv. 232 They've displayed a surprising virtuosity. They're nobody's fools.
1959 ‘A. Fraser’ High Tension x. 103 He smiled slightly, and I made a note that he was nobody's fool.
1985 S. Lowry Young Fogey Handbk. vii. 59 Young Fogey women are..post-feminists..nobody's fools.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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pron.n.a1400