The story
- Old English · inherited fromnōhwēr
- Middle English · inherited fromnowher
- English todaynowhere
From Middle English nowher, from Old English nōhwēr, nāhwǣr, from nā- + hwǣr. By surface analysis, no + where. Adjective usage is taken from phrases like nowhere on the map (signifying the location was too small or too insignificant to be listed), nowhere you want to be, etc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.