Another/ 'nother/other

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on October 14, 2004

In Reply to: Another/ 'nother/other posted by SR on October 14, 2004

: A CNN reporter used 'whole 'nother story' again last night and it hurt my ears. The only explanation I could come up with was:
: That is another story!
: That is a whole other story!
: If we mix them up and add them together we get 'a whole 'nother story!'
: This "whole 'nother" has been mentioned previously, but never discussed at length. What do you think?

It's an informal way of saying "an entirely different story". I'll guess the story on CNN was humorous.

The first time I heard that expression was on a TV commercial for Winchester brand little cigars, or cigarillos. The tag line delivered by a deep-voiced announcer was "It's a whole 'nother smoke". Meanwhile some singers sang "Winchester's somethin' else" in the background. The point was that it wasn't just another cigarette.