1. A person unknown, indeterminate or unnamed; someone, some person.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3785. Þou mayst be wroþe, sum body to chastyse, Þogh hate nat yn þy herte ryse.
1526. Tindale, Luke viii. 46. And Iesus sayd: Someboody touched me.
1592. Arden of Feversham, III. v. Soft, Ales, for here comes some body.
1623. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 149. If wee should goe away without leaving somboddie behynd us.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 155, ¶ 2. I heard some body at a Distance hemming after me.
1779. Mirror, No. 17. 67. I cannot help expressing my suspicion, that Mrs. Rebecca Prune has got some body to write her letter.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, Poems (1905), 173. Take the pipe out of his mouth, somebody.
1891. Freeman, in W. R. W. Stephens, Life & Lett. (1895), II. 428. That is just what I want somebody to do to me.
b. Somebody else, some other person.
The older form of the possessive, somebody’s else, has now given way to somebody else’s (see ELSE adv. 1 d).
1648. Hexham, II. Yemandt anders, Some body else.
1655. Owen, Vindic. Evang., Wks. 1851, XII. 263. That blood was not Christ’s, but somebody’s else that He loved.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 21. The Author of such Legal Formularies, tho’ they had been rough-drawn by his Clerk or some Body else.
1718. J. Fox, Wanderer, 86. To heighten their own Vanity, or some Body’s else.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 27. A kind of shadow, which made me feel as if I had seen it, before,… or somebody else, very much like him.
1860. [see ELSE adv. 1 d].
1892. Zangwill, Bow Mystery, 109. All the seats were numbered, so that everybody might have the satisfaction of occupying somebody else’s.
c. With article or pron.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 74. Somebody in England empowered a second somebody to write to a third somebody here.
1786. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Juvenile Indiscr., V. 30. He was a somebody he was acquainted with.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), IV. 26. There is a somebody who is responsible for it, and that somebody is he.
1869. Dunkin, Midn. Sky, p. ii. It has been the earnest desire of the author to be the ‘somebody’ of Carlyle.
1871. Browning, Balaustion, 308. There spoke up a brisk little somebody.
d. Used as a substitute for a personal name.
1825. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1853), 346. At Send, or Sutton,… there is a Baron somebody, with a De before his name.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xxxii. Up came an aide-de-camp..., telling him that General Somebody ordered him to bring up his guns.
1867. Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xviii. My boy thinks that the opinion of this Professor Von Somebody is oracular in musical matters.
2. A person of some note, consequence or importance. Freq. with depreciatory or sarcastic force.
a. 1566. R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (1571), B i. Ere you came hyther, poore I was sombody, The Kinge delighted in mee, now I am but a noddy.
1590. J. Stockwood, Rules Construct., 62. Schollers, which thinke themselues som bodie.
1678. Marvell, Growth Popery, 33. That they may be thought Some-body.
1704. Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 345. A desire to be somebody … seems to be the rule of his life.
1755. Mem. Capt. P. Drake, II. iii. 88. I … hired a handsome Horse and Furniture, that I might look like somebody.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 188/2. The woman who fancies herself somebody.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Manners, Wks. (Bohn), II. 46. You must be somebody; then you may do this or that, as you will.
b. With a and pl.
1601. Dent, Pathw. Heaven, 163. We see many, that think themselues some bodies,… which yet will be taken with it.
1647. Trapp, Expos. Luke vii. 28. They are somebodies in heaven, whatever men make of them.
a. 1848. Marryat, Valerie, x. (1856), 159. People who are somebodies.
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Family, ii. Her dress was expensive, and she was evidently a Somebody.
1899. F. C. S. Schiller, in Educat. Rev., Oct., 222. Which exasperates somebodies who feel they are treated as nobodies.
3. A person whose name is intentionally suppressed; occas., the Devil.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. i. 45. I would not (as they tearme it) praise it, but I wold some-body had heard her talke yesterday as I did.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxxviii. There is a deeper impression of Somebody’s Hoof here.
