Nah vs Nope - What's the difference?
nah | nope |
(informal) No.
* 1856 , Sidney George Fisher, Charles Edward Fisher, Kanzas and the Constitution ,
* 1880 , R. Foli, Ill weeds ,
* 1890 , Werner's Readings and Recitations , E.S. Werner,
* c1930 , Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, The Detroit Educational Bulletin , Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education,
* 2006 , Charlotte Hudson Ewing, Red Land , AuthorHouse, ISBN: 1420895184,
(informal) A negative reply, no.
* 1981 , Tom Higgins, Practice quick...and swim'', read in ''Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror , Sports Publishing LLC, ISBN: 1582614288 (2001),
* 2002 , Fernando Poyatos, Nonverbal Communication Across Disciplines , John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN: 1556197543,
* 2005 , Suzanne Eggins, Diana Slade, Analysing Casual Conversation , Equinox Publishing Ltd, ISBN: 1845530462,
A bullfinch
* 1613 , Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion'', read in ''The Complete Works of Michael Drayton, Now First Collected. With Introductions and Notes by Richard Hooper. Volume 2. Poly-olbion Elibron Classics (2005) [facsimile of John Russell Smith (1876 ed)],
* 1823 , Edward Moor, Suffolk Words and Phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county , R. Hunter,
* 1836 , David Booth, An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, in which the Words are Explained in the Order of Their Natural Affinity, Independent of Alphabetical Arrangement ,
* 1882 , Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning , G. Bell and Sons,
(East Midlands and Northern England) A blow to the head.
* 1823 , Francis Grose, Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue , Francis Grose,
* 1829 , Joseph Hunter, The Hallamshire Glossary , W. Pickering,
(East Midlands and Northern England) (archaic) To hit someone on the head.
* 1851 , Sylvester Judd, Margaret: a tale of the real and the ideal, blight and bloom , Phillips, Sampson, & Co.,
* 1891 , T F Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings , A. D. Innes & co.,
As an interjection nah
is .As a noun nope is
(archaic) [http://wwwmultimapcom/map/browsecgi?client=public&x=-787500040765448&y=503500097286449&width=700&height=400&gride=-787252440765448&gridn=503740197286449&srec=0&coordsys=mercator&db=us&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=chilmark&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&keepicon=true&zm=0&scale=200000&outx=6&outy=9 martha's vineyard].nope
English
Etymology 1
Representing no pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end.Adverb
(-)p. 97,
- "Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope . The whistle ain't blowed yet."
p. 319,
- "No," from Tom, ending the word with so decided a pressure of the lips that it sounded like "nope ."
p. 50
- “Aunt Kat? And was Aunt Kat your only relation? Have you no father nor mother?” “Nope . Never had none ‘cept Aunt Kat. Her hull name was Katrina. She wuz Dutch she wuz."
p. 13
- 1: I will not dishonour my country's speech by leaving off the last syllables of words, 2: I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya" or "yeh" and "nope "...
p. 54,
- Nope . Don't know as I do.
Usage notes
The above usage has, since the 1850s, been far more common than any others.Antonyms
* yup * yep * yeahNoun
(en noun)- I'll take that as a nope, then.
p. 32
- By one reporter's count, questions about the change elicited seven shakes of the head indicating no comment, five "yeps" and three "nopes " from Earnhardt.
p. 19,
- Now 'Yeah,' 'Yep' and' Nope 'are always given as examples of what we do with 'Yes' and 'No' in English and it has become (particularly for foreigners) a sort of linguistic myth.
p. 97
- While Yeah'' occurs very frequently in casual talk, ''No'' and its conversational derivatives of ''nope , naw, nup, etc. are relatively infrequent.
See also
* yepEtymology 2
Probably mutated from ope (see 1823 quote) from alp;Noun
(en noun)p. 146,
- To Philomell the next, the Linnet we prefer;/And by that warbling bird, the Wood-Lark place we then, /The Reed-sparrow, the Nope , the Red-breast, and the Wren, /The Yellow-pate: which though she hurt the blooming tree, /Yet scarce hath any bird a finer pipe than she.
p. 255
- I may note that olp'', if pronounced ''ope'', as it sometimes is, may be the origin of ''nope'''''; ''an ope'', and ''a '''nope , differ as little as possible.
p. 380
- In Natural History, 'An Eye of Pheasants' was also 'A Nye of Pheasants', and even the human Eye was written a Nye. The Bulfinch was either a Nope , or an Ope ; the common Lizard, or Eft (Old English Evet) is also the Newt; the Water-Eft is the Water-Newt ; and the Saxon nedder , a serpent (probably allied to Nether, as crawling on the ground) has been transformed into an Adder.
p. 583,
- Nope , an old name for the bullfinch used by Drayton (Wright), is a corrupt form for an ope, otherwise spelt aupe, olp, or alpe (Prompt.Parv.).
Quotations
* (English Citations of "nope")Etymology 3
Possibly influenced by nape and knap.Noun
(en noun)p. xci
- (in an example of use of crackmans) The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw.
p. 69,
- I'll fetch thee a nope .
Verb
p. 183,
- "Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.
p. 65
- The sexton seemed reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking -- "Be I to nope Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep?"