how now
Archaic greeting query
How now is an archaic greeting or exclamation of surprise, roughly equivalent to "what's this?" or "what's going on?" It survives mainly through Shakespeare: How now, Ophelia?
The phrase lingers in the tongue twister How now, brown cow, once used to practice rounded vowel sounds.
- brownDark earth tone
- brown cowTawny-hued cattle
- Elizabethan English16th-century British dialect
- ye oldeFake archaic phrase
- greetingExpression of welcome
salutation · interjection · expression · phrase · good morrow · Shakespearean language · pray tell · conversation · hail · theatrical dialogue · well met · good day · dialogue · prithee · what say you · equivalent · hello there · however
- Old Greetingsgood morrow, fare thee well, hail, well met, what ho
- Old Englishnu, her, eft, la, thy