nowhen adv.

(in time-travel contexts): in or at no time

OED records the sense ‘at no time; never’ from 1767, labelled ‘Chiefly regional and literary’.

Time Travel

  • 1982 T. Cummins Dancer in the Ruins in Amazing Stories June 109 page image Tom Cummins bibliography

    Otherwise you'll phase out in the middle of nowhere. Then you'll really be nowhere. And nowhen.

  • 1991 P. M. Grunwell Relocation in Interzone Apr. 39/2 page image Paul M. Grunwell bibliography

    I began the hours of darkness thinking about the [time] machine; about where I went wrong. I've slipped into a crack in time; I'm nowhen any more.

  • 2013 N. Spinrad On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 186/2 page image Norman Spinrad

    Railsea takes place on some planet, somewhere, somewhen—or rather nowhere and nowhen except on a purely literary ‘plane’ in Miéville’s for the most part purely literary multiverse.


Research requirements

any evidence 1982

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.