'Run like wanno'

[Yai]

When I was younger my mum used to say 'run like wanno' when we ran for a bus or something and needed to catch it urgently. Has anyone else heard of this phrase ? Where did it originate and why ?

[Quizmonster]

I wonder whether, instead of 'wanno', the word was actually "one-o". This might have been a local (even one-woman?) variant of 'billy-o', which can mean 'quickly'.

It could also have been 'one o'" - perhaps being an abbreviation of 'one of'. The latter might, therefore, have been a shortened: "Run like one o' those greyhounds" or somesuch. Certainly, there is no standard English word 'wanno'.

[Quizmonster]

A later thought...what about 'Juan-o'? That Spanish name - with an added 'o' such as sportsmen often get tagged on - would also be pronounced 'Wanno', more or less. Could it be a reference to Alberto Juantorena, the Cuban athlete who won Gold in both the 400 and 800 metres at the 1976 Olympics? He was pretty quick! Did your mother have any Cuban connections?

[Yai]

Some good ideas :) No cuban connections.

[gilf]

Hope I dont cause offence, but is your mother still alive, could you ask her and lets us know ?

[Feeva]

I came across your post because I searched for 'like wanno' as well! I have no idea where it came from!

Where I'm from, we use it for more as well:
It rained like wanno last night!
He was scoring like wanno!
She was flirting like wanno!

Basically, I use it to emphasise that something was happening to the extreme, fast, many, heavily, obviously, hard etc.

I'm going to bookmark this post, hopefully someone with brains like wanno will be able to answer us!

[Blakeamania]

Where are you from? I’m from derby uk and people here say it