how come

English

Etymology

US English, 1848,[1] probably from older forms such as “How comes it that... ?” or “How does it come that... ?” and “How did it come to be like this?”[2]

Compare West Frisian hoe kom (“how come”), Dutch hoe komt het (“how comes it; why”), Afrikaans hoekom (“how come; why”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /haʊ kʌm/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Adverb

how come

  1. (idiomatic, informal) Why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?
    Synonym: why come
    How come you didn’t leave when you had the chance?

Usage notes

How come differs from why in that the word order of the question is the same as that of a statement. Compare:

You left. (statement)
How come you left? (statement order)
Why did you leave? (question order)

Synonyms

Translations

References
  1. Eric Partridge (2005) “how come?”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1044.
  2. Hegedűs, Irén; Fodor, Alexandra (2010): English Historical Linguistics 2010: Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, p. 179.
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