# Origin of "anywho" as a substitute for "anyway"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2001, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775 "2001-05-08T15:35:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/1 "2001-05-08T15:35:30Z")
Yet another expression that is much heard these days–how did “anywho” come about? Is there a definitive original source? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/2 "2001-05-08T15:44:16Z")
I think it’s a jocular alteration of “anyhow” to “anyhoo”. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/3 "2001-05-08T16:46:15Z")
Sounds reasonable, Matt - but WHERE did it come from? Surely, teens around the country didn’t all independently think up the joke all at one time? “Anyhoo” has spread like wildfire since (seemingly) last summer. Is it a South-Parkism or something? Sounds like something Cartman would say. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/4 "2001-05-08T17:55:29Z")
It’s not just young’uns saying it, nor is it recent. My mom and her siblings have been saying “anywho” for as long as I can remember, and that’s ages up to 61, but I don’t recall my Grandma or Grandpa ever saying it. My family’s from Western Pennsylvania (Appalachia). Perhaps _South Park_ or some other vector has recently put it into the youth mainstream, but that’s not the origin. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/5 "2001-05-08T21:58:05Z")
Huh, didn’t Homer Simpson of the Simpsons say that, like, in 1991 or so? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/6 "2001-05-08T22:28:43Z")
I always assumed it was a Midwesternism. My friends from Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota would always say that. It derives from “anyhow,” as far as I can tell. And, yes, it’s been around for ages. Long before the Simpsons and South Park popularized it. I’ve heard people of the same generation as Chronos mentioned use it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/7 "2001-05-08T23:49:22Z")
in a comic strip named **Pogo** , created by cartoonist Walt Kelly. He set this political/funny animal comic strip in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, and he \*loved \* odd dialects, nonsense phrases & word games. Remind me to tell you sometime about his annual Xmas carol– **“Deck Us All With Boston Charlie”**. His character _Churchy La’Femm_, the talking turtle, used to use “anywho” all the time. **Pogo** was nationally syndicated, but was especially popular in the upper midwest/Chicago area. The strip ended, but the phrase lives on. ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-anywho-as-a-substitute-for-anyway/64775/8 "2001-05-09T00:04:29Z")
Eek! Friday the thirteenth is fell on a Tuesday! The eighth, no less! Thankee, Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, for giving me an excuse to look at my old Pogo books again. I did so because anyhoo doesn’t sound particularly churchyesque to me. Could you identify a specific instance? Once again, thanks.