ne
Language: English
Part of speech: conj
Pronunciation: ipa: /nə/
Etymology: From Middle English ne, from Old English ne, from Proto-West Germanic *ne, from Proto-Germanic *ne, from Proto-Indo-European *né.
Cognates include Gothic 𐌽𐌹 (ni), Latin nē, Sanskrit न (na), Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Russian не (ne), Lithuanian ne, Irish ní.
Senses: examples: text: That than I shall not geve therunto faith ne credence, nor therfore put them to any maner ponyssement, before that they or any of them so accused may be at their lawful defence and answer.
ref: 1484, Original Letters, King Edward the Fifth, under the direction of his Uncle, to Otes Gilbert, Esq., commanding him to receive Knighthood at the expected Coronation:
text: And therin is no drede nor bytternes ne expences, but therin is pure recreacyon of body and of soule soo it be donn in clene places.
ref: 1489, The gouernayle of helthe:
text: Be not to hasty ne sodenly vengeable, to poure folke doo no vyolence.
ref: 1489, The gouernayle of helthe:
text: Moreouer no man be so hardy to drynk fastyng cold water, ne after that he hath accompanyed wyth a woman, ne after gret trauayle, ne after exersice tyll he haue fyrst rested hym, ne by nyght namely yf he haue do gloue tofore.
ref: 1489, The gouernayle of helthe:
text: A false tonge wyll euer Imagyne and saye / That neuer by creature was sayd ne thought.
ref: 1500, The Example of Euyll Tongues:
text: For chastyce can he not by daye ne nyght his wyfe but by his betynge maketh lyght and hote the loue bytwene her and her frende.
ref: 1509, Wynkyn de Worde, The fyftene joyes of maryage:
text: Item, that noo woman nor maide weyve any worsted stamynges ne sayes for that that thei be nott of sufficient powre to werke the said worsteddes as thei owte to be wrought, upon payne of iij s iiij d as often as thei be founde wevyng to be devyded and leuyed in maner and forme aboue expressed.
ref: 1511, The Records of the City of Norwich:
text: That they shulde no lenger kepe ne susteyne Thomas the archebysshope.
ref: 1520, Richard Pynson, The Lyfe of The Blessed Martyr Saynte Thomas:
text: The rote ought to be gadered in the begynnynge of somer and dryed in the sonne bycause [tha]¬t it corrupt ne rotte bycause of the moystnesse[,] & it may be kept two yeres;
ref: 1526, The Grete Herball:
text: For lyinge is a detestable vice, and to be hated of all men, ne to be suffred amonge seruantis ne other persones[,] howe poure estate so euer they be of.
ref: 1535, Thomas Elyot, The Education or Bringing up of Children:
text: Thus some persones beeyng inuited and exhorted to falle to the studie of lettres, make their excuse that thei bee sickely, that thei can not slepe ne take their naturall reste in the nightes.
ref: 1542, Nicholas Udall, Apophthegms (translation):
text: We Moores be not so base of wit, ne yet so blunt of mynd.
ref: 1558, Thomas Phaer, The Aeneid (translation):
text: The deuyll gossyp, ought me a shame / And prayde I am nowe, euerye penye I wolde god he had, be blinde and lame / The daye and houre, he fyrste woed me / Ware not gossyp, these chyldren thre I wolde not tary, ye may be sure / Longer with hym, daye ne houre.
ref: c. 1560, Edward Gosynhill, The Schoolhouse of Women:
text: Neither extremitie, ne gentle meanes could boote; she hydeth close within her brest, her secret sorowes roote.
ref: 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:
text: Ne on her teares or plaint, at all to have remorse, but (if they can not with her will,) to bring the mayde perforce.
ref: 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:
text: His hart encreaseth not thereby ne lesseth as edoon these fooles.
ref: 1570, John Thynne, The Debate betweene Pride and Lowlines:
text: And that no victualer ne other person or persons forestall any kynde of victualls cominge to the said Cyty or within the precyncte of the same before the same victualls be come to the place.
ref: 1577, The Hereford Municipal Manuscript:
text: Ioc: How can that be and thou my ioy in warre? Po: Henceforth n'am I your ioy ne yet your sonne.
ref: 1587, George Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmershe, Jocasta:
text: But to her cry they list not lenden eare, / Ne ought the more their mightie strokes surceasse.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: Whose worth all outward is in shew alone / But inward sent hath not, ne vertue none.
ref: 1634, W. Lathum, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
text: The pang, the curse, with which they died, / Had never pass'd away; / I could not draw my een from theirs / Ne turn them up to pray.
ref: 1798, Samuel Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, ll. 443-6:
glosses: Nor.
Related terms: naught
ne exeat
nill
none