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Nov 3, 2025
This week’s themeAdverbs This week’s words 
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski Previous week’s theme Adjectives 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargThe other day I came across this photo titled “The bottlecap that wanted to be an adverb”. I had so many questions. Is that even legal in the state of Tennessee? Do those lawmakers instead want bottles to choose their caps’ identity? Some of you may already be bristling at the thoughts of having to refer to a bottlecap as an adverb instead of a noun. As for me, I say let the bottlecap decide how it feels. It costs nothing to honor its preferred part of speech. If it feels like an adverb trapped in a noun’s body, who am I to disagree? Adverbs, a minority among the parts of speech, already receive so much hate. “I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me.” -Mark Twain “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” -Stephen King As if it’s an adverb’s job to make Twain hard. Like people go to Stephen King to lead them to salvation! Let’s be gentle with all parts of speech, especially adverbs. You don’t have to like them, but if someone else does, at least respect their choice. Though many adverbs wear their -ly proudly and happily, some go incognito. This week, we’ll meet five of these quiet rebels, adverbs that don’t fit the mold. elsewhither
PRONUNCIATION:
(ELS-swith-uhr)
MEANING:
adverb: In a different direction.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English elleshwider, from elles (else) + hwider (whither).
Earliest documented use: before 1150.
NOTES:
In the age of knights and quills, it was a perfectly normal word
for turning your horse, or your thoughts, in another direction. Today,
it feels delightfully out of place, like a traveler who lost the GPS
signal and wound up on some byway far from their destination. Use
elsewhither when you need to sound poetic while leaving a party early.
(I enjoyed it, but I must now go elsewhither.)
USAGE:
“[Charles Strickland’s] soul aimed elsewhither.” William Somerset Maugham; The Moon and Sixpence; Grosset & Dunlap; 1919. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will
not always conform to our whim. -James Reston, journalist (3 Nov 1909-1995)
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