Word:
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably by folk etymology from Middle English everich way every way
Date: 1824
1 : in every direction
2 : in a disorderly manner : irregularly
For example, "How do you get thing done? The papers on your desk are scattered every which way."
Movie:
Every Which Way But Loose (1978) Directed by James Fargo. With Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis.
Title origin:
The film’s title refers to the eponymous Eddie Rabbit song from the soundtrack, in which the singer complains that his girlfriend turns him "every which way but loose", i. e. he cannot bring himself to leave her although he is more of a freewheeling character. The film title is also out of the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston where the main character Janie’s husband Tea Cake tells her about a fight he had with a man who had a knife, where in the fight Tea Cake "turned him every way but loose", i.e. fought him but did not let the man stab him.
