a whole nother

a whole nother

See also: a whole 'nother

English

Alternative forms

• a whole 'nother

Etymology

Insertion of whole into another by tmesis.

Determiner

a whole nother

1. (informal) An entirely different; an intensified version of another.
   • 1890, Mary Louisa Molesworth, The Mysterious Guide, in the collection, The Story of a Spring Morning, 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."

   • 1976, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, A Whole Nother Thang, album title (quoted in Wikipedia A Whole Nother Thang)
   • 1998, Gayl Jones, The Healing, page 18:

     But that's a whole nother story.

   • 2001, Thulani Davis, 1959, page 282:

     It's a whole nother bunch of folks over beyond the trees 'cross the tracks.

   • 2003, Henry Rollins, as quoted in Michael W. Dean, $30 Music School, Thomson Course Technology, →ISBN, page 457:

     The problem is that when you physically try to impede my progress—then it moves up to a whole 'nother level that you probably can't handle me on.

   • 2005, Margo Lanagan, Rite of Spring, in Gavin J. Grant, Ellen Datlow, & Kelly Link, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, page 19:

     A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.