neither

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English

WOTD – 11 May 2010
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Etymology

Alteration (after either) of nauther, from Middle English nawther, noþer, naðer (whence also Modern nor), from Old English nāwþer, contraction of nāhwæþer, corresponding to no + whether. Compare Latin neuter (“neither”).

Pronunciation

Determiner

neither

  1. Not one of two; not either.
    Neither definition seems correct.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      She was neither learned nor intelligent, but she contrived to dress both herself and her daughter out of a meagre jointure, supplying with her clever fingers what her purse could not buy; […] .
  2. Not either (used with nor).
    Neither you nor I likes it.

Derived terms

Translations

Pronoun

neither

  1. Not either one of two.
    I’ve tried on both shirts, but neither fits properly.

Usage notes

  • According to traditional grammar, neither should always be construed as a singular (as in the example above). In practice, however, plural construction is often met with, especially when a specification with of follows: Neither of these shirts is / are clean.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adverb

neither (not comparable)

  1. Similarly not.
    Just as you would not correct it, neither would I.
    Neither can she stop him, nor can he stop her.
    Neither now, nor ever will he forsake his mother.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them […] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

Usage notes

  • Neither is used to mean none of two or more. Although some suggest that using the word neither with more than two items is incorrect, it has been commonly used to refer to more than two subjects since the 17th century.
  • Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. - inscription on James A. Farley Post Office Building, New York
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  • There is considerable variation in the number of the verb employed with this construction.
  • Examples:
  • “That woman was neither a collector nor an art critic, but she understood the meaning I meant to give that work.” — Marcelle Ferron
  • “Has anyone ever loved you so much that they tried to kill you, or perhaps sucked you down into a hole so that you had to kill them to get away? Yeah, me neither.” — Maynard James Keenan
  • “You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work.” — Lee Trevino
  • “As if it were gold and could be neither good nor bad nor worth more nor worth less but must always be worth the same no matter what.” — Alex Miller
  • “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!” — Rudyard Kipling
  • “Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all.” — Jesus Christ Superstar

Translations

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