The English Oracle

"Nowadays" versus "now days"

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Chapters
00:00 &Quot;Nowadays&Quot; Versus &Quot;Now Days&Quot;
00:25 Accepted Answer Score 19
01:03 Thank you

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Full question
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Tags
#wordchoice #etymology #spacing

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 19


Nowadays, the word is nowadays. You can find it in any dictionary (unlike now days). The better ones will also have the etymology:

late 14c., contracted from Middle English nou adayes (mid-14c.), from now + adayes "during the day," with adverbial genitive (see day).

As you can see, it used to be two words — seven centuries ago.

The Corpus of Contemporary American English does have a few cites for now days, but frankly, just look at the figures yourself:

 nowadays    3167
 now days       7

And here are the figures from the British National Corpus:

 nowadays    1556
 now days       0

That's how tiny a minority you're in. For once, the spellchecker is actually right.