How and when did this most irritating phrase in the English language originate? We could argue about whether it's correct I suppose, but that's a "whole nother thing" isn't it? If something can be a "whole nother" thing, can something else be just part of a nother? And what exactly is a "nother" anyway? Can I slice a couple of "nothers" and mix the parts up to get another whole nother? Or a whole nother nother? Would that be a whole nother thing, or the same nother as before, only with new parts?
Another whole way of looking at it would be to use proper English to start with! But that's a whole nother thing I guess...
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I abso-freaking-lutely recommend you look up the word "tmesis".
What!?!?! How come I NEVER remember hearing "a whole nother" until about the last 20 years?? I can't be-friggin-lieve that's actually a recognized 'thing' in English. No wonder this language is so utterly baffling to non-native speakers. It's utterly baffling to me, and I *am* a native speaker. The concept may have been around since the 16th Century, but it's still just wrong. Posi-friggin-tively wrong.
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I gotta agree with Butch on this one. Sure, it's got a name (tmesis) to define what it is, but I don't like what it does to the language. Of course usage dictates evolution, but this just opens too many holes in meaning. Exactly where is the dividing line between poetic license and proper grammar? Is "tmesis" just "word play" or is it evolution? Sorry, but I don't like it.
In the words of Ned Flanders, it just sounds in-frikkin'-correct.
Nonetheless, I bet you would be hard pressed to find fault in any of these words: apron, adder, auger, newt, nickname, notch. There are others. Perhaps needless to say, the ones starting with a vowel historically had initial n that got lopped off by redivision:
e.g. a nap(e)ron became an ap(e)ron.
The ones starting with an n enjoyed the reverse form of redivision, much like our phrase in question.
I think, at least in the case of the word list above, you would have to concede this process is part of the evolution of English. Who knows if nother will stick as these others (zothers?) did? It does seem to have quite a bit of staying power.