woulda, coulda, shoulda

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Derisively mimicks the frequent perfect conditional forms (I would have done this and that) which are used when talking about what might have happened in the past.

Phrase

woulda, coulda, shoulda

  1. An expression of dismissiveness or disappointment concerning a statement, question, explanation, course of action, or occurrence involving hypothetical possibilities, uncertain facts, or missed opportunities.[1]
    • 1995 November 17, A. M. Rosenthal, “The Great Botch-Up”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 June 2015:
      President Clinton . . . had his clear shot at health-care reform, if we need it, he and his wife, but they blew it. As Mrs. Clinton might say, woulda coulda shoulda.
    • 2006 February 21, Mike Rowbottom, “Retirement talk works wonders for Dorfmeister”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 16 June 2015:
      Rahlves described the team's overall skiing performance here as, "woulda, shoulda, coulda—all that stuff. It sucks—we definitely came up very short."
    • 2008 July 7, David Van Biema, Tim McGirk, “Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel?”, in Time, retrieved 16 June 2015:
      uch a contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts.
    • 2014 December 18, Doug Smith, “Three things to ponder from easy Raptors win”, in Toronto Star, Canada, retrieved 18 June 2015:
      e was talking about last night’s game and what it would have meant to have this roster last spring. . . .
      “Shoulda, coulda, woulda” he started. “If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas, right?”

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ Cf. William Safire ("On Language," New York Times, May 15, 1994): "The order of words in this delicious morsel of dialect varies with the user. . . . In this rhyming compound, a triple elision does the hat trick: although each elision expresses something different, when taken together, the trio conveys a unified meaning. Shoulda, short for should have (and not should of, which lexies call a variant but I call a mistake), carries a sense of correctness or obligation; coulda implies a possibility, and woulda denotes conditional certainty, an oxymoron: the stated intent to have taken an action if only something had not intervened. . . . Taken together, the term means 'Spare me the useless excuses.'"

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