how come
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
US English, 1848,[1] probably from older forms such as “How comes it that... ?” or “How does it come that... ?” and “How did it come to be like this?”[2]
Compare West Frisian hoe kom (“how come”), Dutch hoe komt het (“how comes it; why”), Afrikaans hoekom (“how come; why”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adverb[edit]
- (idiomatic, informal) Why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?
- Synonym: why come
- How come you didn’t leave when you had the chance?
Usage notes[edit]
How come differs from why in that the word order of the question is the same as that of a statement. Compare:
- You left. (statement)
- How come you left? (statement order)
- Why did you leave? (question order)
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
why
|
References[edit]
- ^ Eric Partridge (2005) “how come?”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1044.
- ^ Hegedűs, Irén; Fodor, Alexandra (2010): English Historical Linguistics 2010: Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, p. 179.