Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: AIN'T |
AIN'T1. A contraction for are not and am not; also used for is not. [Colloq. or illiterate speech]. See An't. |
| Domain | Definition |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Ain't. This word is a contraction of am not or are not, and can, therefore, be used only with the singular pronouns I and you, and with the plural pronouns we, you, and they, and with nouns in the plural. I am not pleased. I ain't pleased. You are not kind. You ain't kind. They are not gentlemen. They ain't gentlemen. These sentences will serve to illustrate the proper use of ain't, if it is ever proper to use such an inelegant word as that. "James ain't a good student," "Mary ain't a skillful musician," or "This orange ain't sweet," are expressions frequently heard, yet those who use them would be shocked to hear the same expressions with the proper equivalent am not or are not substituted for the misleading ain't. The expression ain't is compounded of the verb am or are and the adverb not, and by the contraction the three vocal impulses I-am-not, or you-are-not, or they-are-not, are reduced to two. By compounding the pronoun with the verb and preserving the full adverb, as in "I'm not," "You're not," "They're not," we also reduce the three vocal impulses to two, thus securing as short a contraction in sound and one that is as fully adapted to colloquial speech, and that is, at the same time, in much better taste. The old form for ain't was an't, but this has now become obsolete. It will be a blessing to the English-speaking people when the descendant shall sleep with his father. Are not is sometimes contracted into aren't, but this form has not found much favor. Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Ain't is a contraction originally for "am I not?" The word is a perennial problem in English usage.It is considered by many to be a shibboleth; its frequent use is said to be a marker of basilectal --- which is to say, lower class --- speech. This judgment, hard to justify on etymological or grammatical reasons, remains a widespread belief, and is to some extent self-perpetuating, since both teachers and educated parents discourage the use of the term.
Ain't arose towards the end of an eighteenth century period that marked the development of most of the English contracted verb forms such as can't, don't, and won't. The form first appears in print in 1778. It was preceded by an't, which had been common for about a century before then. An't appears first in print in the work of Restoration playwrights: it is seen first in 1695, when William Congreve wrote I can hear you farther off, I an't deaf, suggesting that the form was in the beginning a contraction of "am not". But as early as 1696 Sir John Vanbrugh uses the form for "are not": These shoes an't ugly, but they don't fit me. At least in some dialects, an't is likely to have been pronounced like ain't, and thus the appearance of ain't is more a clarified spelling than a new verb form; in some dialects of British English, are rhymed with air, and a 1791 American spelling reformer proposed spelling "are" as er. Ain't in these earliest uses seems to have served as a contraction for both am not and are not; for which see be.
During the nineteenth century, with the rise of prescriptivist usage writers, ain't fell under attack. The attack came on two fronts: usage writers did not know or pretended not to know what ain't was a contraction of, and its use was condemned as a vulgarism --- here meaning a part of the speech of the lower classes. Perhaps partly as a reaction to this trend, the number of situations in which ain't was used began to expand: some speakers began to use ain't in place of is not, have not, and has not.
Ain't would solve one logical problem of English grammar; it would serve as a useful contracted inverted form in the question Ain't I? Many prescriptivists prefer Aren't I in this situation; this is illogical in conjugation, and for speakers of non-rhotic dialects may only be a baroque spelling of one possible pronunciation of the eighteenth century an't. Ain't is also obligatory in some fixed phrases, such as Say it ain't so. Ain't may also be mandatory if you accept African-American vernacular English as an alternative set of grammatical norms. However, most usage writers continue to condemn "ain't."
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ain't."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Caution | Ante victoriam ne canas triumphum; "give, every man thine ear but few thy voice"; he who laughs last laughs best, il rit bien qui rit le dernier; ni firmes carta que no leas ni bebas agua que no veas; nescit vox missa reverti; " love all, trust a few "; noli irritare leones; safe bind safe find; " if it ain't broke, don't fix it". |
Inaction | Phrase: cunctando resPhrase: cunctando restituit rem "If it ain't broke don't fix it"; stare decisis |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: AIN'T |
| English words defined with "AIN'T": An't. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "AIN'T": Asparagus ♦ Contractions ♦ Don't want none ♦ GRAVE ♦ -grave ♦ hack value ♦ responsibility ♦ Sparrowgrass ♦ TANSTAAFL ♦ Very Vulgar Vulgarisms. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Badges? We ain't got no badges (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; writing credit: B. Traven; John Huston) But she ain't blind out here (Sleepers; writing credit: Barry Levinson) She ain't no albino (His Girl Friday; writing credit: Ben Hecht; Charles MacArthur) If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as if our hard work ain't been in vain for nothing (Singin' in the Rain; writing credit: Betty Comden and Adolph Green.) If I spill, my life ain't worth a nickel (On the Waterfront; writing credit: Budd Schulberg.) | |
Lyrics | Ain't no sunshine when she's gone (Ain't No Sunshine; performing artist: Bill Withers) There ain't nothing bout you that don't do something for me (Ain't Nothing 'Bout You; performing artist: Brooks & Dunn) But baby it ain't over 'til it's over (It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over; performing artist: Lenny Kravitz; writing credit: Lenny Kravitz) And I ain't marchin' anymore (I Ain't Marching Anymore; performing artist: Phil Ochs) Yo there ain't no place like home (Ain't No Place Like Home; performing artist: Prince) | |
Clever | Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. (references; author: Mark Twain) Faith is believing what you know ain't so. (references; author: Mark Twain) It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. (references; author: Mark Twain) Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Big House Ain't a Home (1974) It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974) Ain't Misbehavin' (1955) Cartoons Ain't Human (1943) It Ain't Hay (1943) | |
Song Titles | Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got) (performing artist: Four Tops) She Ain't Worth It (performing artist: Glenn Medeiros featuring Bobby Brown) Ain't It Funny (performing artist: Jennifer Lopez) It Ain't Over `Til It's Over (performing artist: Lenny Kravitz) Ain't No Mountain High Enough (performing artist: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Pull! pull! : aw, heck, you guys ain't pulling a pound!. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Where's Yohnalossee? he muttered. He ain't here, honey. He ain't never been here, Rosanna answered. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | I ain't skeered, but I knows what I'm seeing -- and it's no Halloween joke, either. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Take one look at that tail Muriel Murphy, an' then tell me you ain't sorry you got your hair bobbed!. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | "This here country ain't big enough for both of us" / Herblock. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Ain't kicking on luck anyhow. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Hired man hauling logs on farm near Waterbury, Vermont. They are then sold to the mill. He said "There ain't nothin' meaner than a log except a woman when she wants to be. They sure can be stubborn.". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Negro sharecropper with twenty acres. He receives eight cents a day for hoeing cotton. Brazos riverbottoms, near Bryan, Texas. "Some of 'em don't get nothin'. They just make these niggers chop that cotton." Few leave the bottoms. "They ain't got nothin' t. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | "No, it ain't hootch, officer; I just been paintin' a coupla barber poles!". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Gee, ain't it fine that our teacher could go abroad this summer?. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Cat" by Andrew Mills Commentary: "This ain't my cat." | "Futuristic subway station" by bizilagun design Commentary: "This futuristic scenario ain't but the Principe Pio subway station in Madrid, Spain." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Alice Hegan Rice | It ain't no use putting up your umbrella till it rains. |
Dan Cook | The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings. |
Henry Wheeler Shaw | It ain't often that a man's reputation outlasts his money. |
Joel Chandler Harris | Watch out when you're getting all you want. Fattening hogs ain't in luck. |
Josh Billings | Pity cost nothing and ain't worth nothing. |
| Men mourn for what they have lost; women for what they ain't got. | |
Louisa May Alcott | Housekeeping ain't no joke. |
Marlon Brando | An actor's a guy who if you ain't talking about him he ain't listening. |
Walt Whitman | If you done it, it ain't bragging. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Zimbabwe | You ain't seen nothing yet." In addition the government controlled The Herald printed an opinion piece by Minister Moyo shortly before the bombing in which he described The Daily News as a threat to the country. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | GRAVE, n. A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student. Beside a lonely grave I stood -- With brambles 'twas encumbered; The winds were moaning in the wood, Unheard by him who slumbered, A rustic standing near, I said: "He cannot hear it blowing!" "'Course not," said he: "the feller's dead -- He can't hear nowt [sic] that's going." "Too true," I said; "alas, too true -- No sound his sense can quicken!" "Well, mister, wot is that to you? -- The deadster ain't a-kickin'." I knelt and prayed: "O Father, smile On him, and mercy show him!" That countryman looked on the while, And said: "Ye didn't know him." Pobeter Dunko |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Carol Channing | Well, she was probably the great creative force of our whole century. She's a terrific thing and she's unique and she's Barbra. But a barrel of laughs she ain't. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "AIN'T"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 不是 (NOT). (various references) | |
Hungarian | nem vagyok. (various references) | |
Indonesian | bukan tidak (are-is-am not). (various references) | |
Italian | non e\. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ain'tay.(various references) | |
Romanian | formã contrasã pentru am not şi are not. (various references) | |
Swedish | är inte (aren't, isn't). (various references) | |
Turkish | yok (absent, away, nay, no, nope, not, there is not, unavailable), değil (no, not, not a, un-). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "'-a-i-n-t" | |
-1 letter: anti, tain. | |
-2 letters: ain, ait, ani, ant, nit, tan, tin. | |
-3 letters: ai, an, at, in, it, na, ta, ti. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Translations: Modern 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
