by the by, here's an example where the Online Etymology Dictionary is totally hosed, "1847, as phrase none the less; contracted into one word from c.1930"
it's clear they[he] took this directly from OED2:
1847 DICKENS Dombey (1848) xlii. 419, I thank you none the less. 1875 RUSKIN Fors Clav. lv, The children none the less knew their love. 1924 G. B. SHAW St. Joan v. 66 But you will be none the less alone: they cannot save you. 1930 Principal's Rep., Armstrong College (Newcastle) 1929-30 4 The elevation of Sir William Noble..to the peerage..has been a matter of pride and pleasure..which nonetheless has been qualified subsequently. 1955 Times 13 July 7/5 Later than Nabucco.., it is, nonetheless, not such a good opera. 1972 Nature 8 Dec. 327/1 Although some research fields seem to grow from a single, germinal experiment, others take root in accidents set off by workers stumbling from one preserve to another{em}and are none-the-less interesting for that.
but they[he] needs to keep up with OED[online]:
1533 Aberdeen Burgh Rec. in A. J. Mill Mediaeval Plays in Scotl. (1927) 144 Nontheles he was {ygh}eit reddy to except the said office gif the toune [etc.]. 1620 tr. G. Boccaccio Decameron III. X, None the less he would do all that in him lay. 1821 N. Amer. Rev. July 58 Education is not a subject of national legislation, but it is none the less a national concern. 1847 DICKENS Dombey & Son (1848) xlii. 419, I thank you none the less. 1875 J. RUSKIN Fors Clavigera lv, The children none the less knew their love. 1915 C. P. S. GILMAN Herland xi, He said that they could of course kill him,..but that he despised them nonetheless. 1955 Times 13 July 7/5 Later than Nabucco.., it is, nonetheless, not such a good opera. 1988 M. SPARK Far Cry from Kensington vi. 29 Anne Clough, whose father, though completely crazy, had nonetheless been hanged.
-joe (that was a bit of fun) friday
