Etymologically
Log in

nobody

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈnəʊ.bə.di/, /ˈnəʊ.bɒd.i/, US /ˈnoʊ.bɑː.di/, /ˈnoʊ.bə.di/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from English no + body: Middle English no “not any” and bodi “person”.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“No person, no one”: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,[3][2] or 1338 in the OED.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was written separately, as no body, from the 14th to the 18th century, and hyphenated in the 17th and 18th centuries.[2] The use with they, their or them is attested from the 1540s,[2][5] and Etymonline considers it incorrect.[2] A person of no importance, influence or social position is a nobody from 1581,[5][6] and with a and the plural from 1583.[5][7] Johnson (1755) quotes Shakespeare's “the picture of nobody” from The Tempest.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1303 – no person.[3]
  • 1540s – followed by they or their.[2]
  • 1581 – a person of no importance.[5][6]
  • 1583 – a nobody, nobodies.[5]

Modern meaning

Pronoun

  1. No person; not anyone.

Noun

  1. A person of no importance or influence.

Usage notes

Nobody and no one are interchangeable,[9] and both take a singular verb; in informal use they are often followed by they or their.[5][2]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin