non-

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnɑn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English non- (“not, lack of, failure to”), from Middle English non (“no, not any; not, not at all”, literally “none”) and Old English nān- (prefix), both from Old English nān (“no, not any”), from Proto-West Germanic *nain, from Proto-Germanic *nainaz (“none, nought, zero”), see none. Merged with and reinforced by Middle English non- (“not”), from Old French non- and Medieval Latin nōn (“not”), from Old Latin noinu, noinom, from ne oinom (“not one”).

Prefix

non-

1. Used in the sense of no or none, to show lack of or failure to perform; or in the sense of not, to negate the meaning of the word to which it is prefixed.

   nonpayment (“lack of payment, failure to pay”)

   nonaggressive (“not aggressive”)

   2. Not, the negation of the root word (a quality).

      nonaboriginal is a person who is not aboriginal, nonabrasive is a substance that is not abrasive, nonabstract is not abstract

   4. Absence, the absence of the root (a quantity).

      nonaccountability is absence of accountability, nonacceleration is lack of acceleration, nonaction is the absence of action; failure to act

   6. Avoiding an action.

      nonabiding is the practice of avoiding mental constructs during daily life, nonacceptance is a neglect or refusal to accept, nonaccumulative is tending to avoid accumulation

   8. Neutral in quality.

      nonaccent is a spoken accent that is neutral and undistinctive; nonacrocentric is having the centromere near the middle, and thus having roughly equal-sized arms; nonaccent is an unaccented beat or syllable, as in music or poetry

Usage notes

• Non- may be attached to nouns (nonspace), adjectives (nonaggressive), adverbs (nonaggressively, nonstop), or—infrequently—even verbs (nontender).
• Non- may be joined to a word with a hyphen, standard in British usage as evidenced by OED's typically including only the hyphenated forms, but some OED entries are spelled without hyphen only. In American usage, non- is often joined without a hyphen. (For example, nonbaseball is relatively common, but noncricket, referring to a primarily British sport, is rare.) Some non- words rarely or never use a hyphen (such as nonentity). By contrast, un- is almost always spelled without a hyphen. GPO manual item 6.29. recommends to spell non- prefixed words without a hyphen unless an overriding consideration applies.
• For combinations with capitalized words such as proper nouns and some adjectives, hyphen is almost always used, e.g. non-Aristotelian or non-English. This matches GPO manual recommendation.
• Semantically, non- suggests objective quality and logical opposition (hence ungradable), whereas un- suggests subjective quality and polar/diametric opposition (often gradable).
• Meaning "not" in phrases taken from Latin and some other languages, non is a separate word and is not hyphenated: non compos mentis, persona non grata.
• As non- is a living and highly productive prefix, the list of words having the prefix non- is practically unlimited: Wiktionary currently has over 9000 such word forms. It is particularly common in the sciences.

Synonyms

• (not): a-, an-, dys-, i-/il-/im-/in-/ir-, mal-, un-
• (absence): hypo-, pero-, ex-}, or-}, se-
• (avoiding): de-, isch-
• (neutral): anti-, neutro-

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Latin nona (“nine”).

Prefix

non-

2. prevocalic form of nona-

Derived terms

• nonad
• nonet
• nonuplet

References

Further reading

• “non-”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “non-”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnʌn/, /ˈnʌnˀ/, /nʌnˈ/

Prefix

non-

1. non-

Derived terms

References

• “non-” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /noːn/

• Audio

  (file)

Prefix

non-

1. (organic chemistry) non-

Derived terms

See also

• Category:nl:Hydrocarbon chain prefixes

Indonesian

Etymology

From English non-, from Middle English non- (“not, lack of, failure to”), from Middle English non (“no, not any; not, not at all”, literally “none”), from Old English nān (“no, not any”), see none. Merged with and reinforced by Middle English non- (“not”), from Old French non- and Medieval Latin nōn (“not”), from Old Latin noinu, noinom, from ne oinom (“not one”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: non

Prefix

non-

1. non-: Used in the sense of no or none, to show lack of or failure to perform; or in the sense of not, to negate the meaning of the word to which it is prefixed.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “non-” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.