Nowadays (nou adaise)

Nowadays is a word that I think should be retired. I used to tell my students in Korea that no native english speaker would ever use the word "nowadays". I suspected that they were getting it from some stupid old oxford publication on english grammar. But, and this will continue my persecution of C.Taylor, I've found him using it (p. 9 of the article mentioned below).

I should pondure on this a bit more. Nowadays...no one ever says nowaday. Why is it always plural (why are days countable and milks not?). Why always now. My dad is fond of a similar phrase: "in this day and age". Admittedly, nowadays is a bit more efficient then Dad's archaism. But will this save it from the chopping block?

The Oxford English Dictionary never ceases to amaze me. Chaucer is the first to write this phrase (surely that has some redeeming value - Chaucer was a bit of a dude):

2. now-a-days: At the present day, during the present time.
c1386 CHAUCER Can. Yeom. T. 425 Ffor any wit {th}at men han now a dayes [Camb. MS. on dayes]. a1420 HOCCLEVE De Reg. Princ. 1415 Adayes now, my sone, as men may see, O chirche to o man may nat suffise. c1449 PECOCK Repr. II. xiii. 227 Peple now adaies ben not to be blamed. 1590 SHAKES. Mids. N. III. i. 148 Reason and loue keepe little company together, now-adayes. 1651 WITTIE Primrose's Pop. Err. I. ii. 4 But now adayes great is the neglect herein. 1711 GREENWOOD Eng. Gram. 227 One ought not promiscuously to write every Noun with a great Letter, as is the Fashion of some now adaies. 1856 E. B. DENISON Church Bldg. iv. 150 What would nowadays be talked of as a very fine spire.

and then the OED contradicts itself (though perhaps it has something to do with the previous def being on the adverb, and this next one including the noun):

A. adv. At the present time, in contrast with the past.
?1387 R. WIMBLEDON Serm. (Corpus Cambr.) 83 O Lord God, what abusioun is {th}er among officeres of here bo{th}e lawes nowadayes. a1393 GOWER Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) V. 4884 As men mai finde nou adaies. c1395 CHAUCER Clerk's Tale E 1164 It were ful hard to fynde now a dayes In al a toun Grisildis thre or two. c1400 (a1376) LANGLAND Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr.) A. XI. 37 Leccherie & losengerie..{th}ise arn games nowadayes. ?c1450 tr. Bk. Knight of La Tour Landry 53 Men of these maners there be now a dayes to mani. 1474 CAXTON tr. Game & Play of Chess 30 The lawes nowadayes ben not executed but vpon the poure peple. a1533 LD. BERNERS tr. Huon lxxxi. 252 Now a dayes can not be founde trew frendes as were wont to be. 1583 P. STUBBES Anat. Abuses II. sig. D3, I cannot but lament the small preferment now adaies that learning getteth in the world. 1611 Bible (A.V.): 1 Sam. xxv. 10 There bee many seruants now a daies that breake away. 1658 W. JOHNSON tr. F. Würtz Surgeons Guid II. Introd. 43 Yet have I not related all the abuses which are practised and committed now adayes. 1712 J. ADDISON Spectator No. 481 ¶4 Lacqueys were never so saucy and pragmatical, as they are now-a-days. 1747 R. CAMPBELL London Tradesman iii. 39 Their Patients received more Ease from their rude Conjectures, than may now a-days be received from the elaborate Systems of a College. 1766 J. FORDYCE Serm. Young Women (1767) I. vi. 226 We speak of good housewifery now a days. 1833 H. MARTINEAU Berkeley the Banker I. i. 21 Guineas are scarce now-a-days. 1893 Law Times 95 248/1 The Crown has certain privileges which appear somewhat anomalous nowadays. 1918 V. WOOLF Diary (1979) I. 163 We had a great bout of people yesterday, as we tend to do nowadays. 1939 L. M. MONTGOMERY Anne of Ingleside xiii. 86 We never seem to have old-fashioned winters nowadays. 1988 M. HOCKING Irrelevant Woman (1989) vi. 77 Kids are spoiled nowadays. They are brought up to think the world revolves around them.

B. n. Present times.
?c1425 tr. G. de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) 568 Wirchers of now a dayes [?a1425 N.Y. Acad. Med. {th}at ar nowe; L. moderni] maken hem noght but after {th}e dyuysioun of 8 membres folowed in {th}is tretys. 1645 MILTON Tetrachordon 26 Not partly right and partly wrong,..as Divines of now adaies dare censure them. 1647 tr. Maloezzi Pourtract 94 The Phisitians of now a dayes. 1852 N. HAWTHORNE Wonder-bk. (1879) 121 In the orchards of nowadays. 1904 M. M. DODGE Miss Flip at Exposition in Poems & Verses 117 Because we girls of nowadays... We learn so much we really feel as if we ought n't to. 1991 K. K. DYSON tr. R. Tagore I won't let you Go 199 There are likenesses between the dreams of yore and the dreams of nowadays.

C. adj. (attrib.). Of or belonging to the present day. rare.
1609 J. RAWLINSON Fishermen 32 Such indeed..is our now-adaies religion. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 2 Mar. 2/1 These nowadays parsons are just a set of fussing insurance agents. 1967 P. J. KAVANAGH Satire I in Coll. Poems 59 Why did I leave my rich place at the court, or the nowadays version of it.



Then again, Chaucer did die, why can't his word? Though, if we still spelled it like Gower did in the 15th century - nou adaise - I think I would excuse it. Nou adaise, we don't spell "nowadays" as we did thenadays, but we should return to the beforethenadays. I'm in adaise. Leave me by myselfe blogge!!!