The word "Ain't"

[JusDaMan]

Me and my friend is arguing if ain't is a real word or not. I say it is. she say it isnt.

I say it is cause it is more used than ALOT of other words in the english language... maybe something like sage or xenophobia or even I duno u name something

Aint means am not, have not, basically alot of nots...


Give me your thoughts.

[Uzumaki Naruto]

look it up in the dictionary, nah it is its a contraction of am not so it is a real word ur freinds wrong

[njdevs95]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=aint

[Jman]

a quick search resulted with


2 entries found for ain't.
ain't ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nt)
Nonstandard
Contraction of am not.
Used also as a contraction for are not, is not, has not, and have not.
Usage Note: Ain't has a long history of controversy. It first appeared in 1778, evolving from an earlier an't, which arose almost a century earlier as a contraction of are not and am not. In fact, ain't arose at the tail end of an era that saw the introduction of a number of our most common contractions, including don't and won't. But while don't and won't eventually became accepted at all levels of speech and writing, ain't was to receive a barrage of criticism in the 19th century for having no set sequence of words from which it can be contracted and for being a vulgarism, that is, a term used by the lower classes, although an't at least had been originally used by the upper classes as well. At the same time ain't's uses were multiplying to include has not, have not, and is not, by influence of forms like ha'n't and i'n't. It may be that these extended uses helped fuel the negative reaction. Whatever the case, criticism of ain't by usage commentators and teachers has not subsided, and the use of ain't is often regarded as a sign of ignorance. ·But despite all the attempts to ban it, ain't continues to enjoy extensive use in speech. Even educated and upper-class speakers see no substitute in folksy expressions such as Say it ain't so and You ain't seen nothin' yet. ·The stigmatization of ain't leaves us with no happy alternative for use in first-person questions. The widely used aren't I? though illogical, was found acceptable for use in speech by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey, but in writing there is no acceptable substitute for the stilted am I not?

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ain't

EDIT- Lol njdevs95 beat me to it.

[njdevs95]

Lol <<<<winner by 1 minute.

[JusDaMan]

the same thing i got with it in smarterchild

but she said its ebonics or something like that... i dont even kno wat ebonics means.. AHAHHAHA

[iminyourbrain]

in english class they say "ain't ain't a word" but apparently it is i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif. i wouldn't use it if i was writing a paper tho

[Xollence]

It's not really a word, but hicks have been using it a lot so they put it in the dictionary.

[chambers]

it is a word. contractions count as non standard english. therefore it IS a word. you dont use it in exams because you only use standard english in exam situation/course work you also wouldnt use it a a formal function or whatever.

[Xollence]

We already know, it's in the dictionary, I was joking.

[Poiple Weezard]

The first set of definitions on that page, and the history of the word, are supplied by American Heritage Dictionary. They list the word as Nonstandard as you can plainly see. I'm pretty sure that means its still acceptable.

If you look further down the page you'll see Webster's short entry on the matter. In that section, its listed as a colloquialism (sp?), otherwise known as slang. That would means its not a real word in the proper English dictionary.

It all depends on which you put more weight in. I happen to be a fan of using colloquiallisms, so I'll go with the first.

[Assertn]

it wouldnt be ebonics......ebonics is "ghetto speak".....like rap for example i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

although im sure some of them use it, its more of a slang sorta thing....
and alot of dictionaries include slang in their lists, so if you're wondering if its a formal word in itself, then no it isnt.....but if you're including slang, then it is

[chambers]

it IS a real word. its a contraction as someone already said. just like you wouldnt wear shorts an t-shirt if you were meeting the queen, there are levels of language at diffrent acceptabilitys. like i said aint IS a word. its just non-standard so wouldnt be used in an essay or shouldnt be used in a formal speech. there are some people who argue that slang is bad, non-standard and therefore shouldnt be used, but thats almost a diffrent matter.

[Poiple Weezard]

If you wanna go that way then even "lol" could be considered a "real word". It exists as slang in today's day and age. The fact that a word or term exists and is in use doesn't mean that it should be recognized by the language. If its not accepted in formal speech, then its not actually part of the English language.

[chambers]

no you couldnt lol isnt a word its an acronym. and if its not accepted formal speech then its not actually part of the english language? so contractions of any kind arnt allowed? pronouncing a word with a glottel stop where not intended doesnt make a word not a word. flabberweifer isnt a word. lol isnt a word. aint IS. end of discussion.

[Poiple Weezard]

Lol was a poor choice of an example on my part, try "pwned" instead.

By the way, don't say something like "end of discussion" on a casual forum when its people expressing opinions. Its extremely rude.

[iminyourbrain]

ain't is just like couldn't wouldn't... etc but it just didn't get as widely accepted as the other contractions is what i got from the aforementioned reference. but i don't see how pwned could become a real word because webster would be confused on how to spell it phoenetically... "pwuhn-ed" maybe? l33t speak dictionary yes, websters no.

ed. and widely popularized slang is how new words get added to the language yes?

[ShinobiNeko]

Originally posted by: Poiple Weezard
If you wanna go that way then even "lol" could be considered a "real word". It exists as slang in today's day and age. The fact that a word or term exists and is in use doesn't mean that it should be recognized by the language. If its not accepted in formal speech, then its not actually part of the English language.

Um, you are wrong there. Just because a word is not accepted in "formal speech" does not mean that is not part of the English language (or for whatever language it may be, for that matter) and if the word exists and is in use in speech, it should be recognized, because its in use. ain't is a contraction, like others have said, it is a word, and you can't always go by 'if its not in the dictionary it's not a word' because many times there will be words you can't find in the dictionary, especially since languages change over time.

Poiple think you should take a lingusitcs class, you'd learn alot about language from it.