ne
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
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: For she ne dare doo, but to commande.
ref: c1500, Melusine (translation)
text: And whan the good quene herde these pyteous tydynges lytel lacked that the ne dyed for sorowe / wherfore all lamentably the began to complayne her sayenge.
ref: 1512, Robert Copland, The History of Helyas, Knight of The Swan:
text: This shold haue bene his skuce at the lest / And it ne had bene but good & honest.
ref: c1520, Andria by Terence (translation)
text: O so incessaunt thow ad in thy desyre / For so that thow thy mynde now mayst haue / Thow ne caryst what thow dost requyre.
ref: c1520, Andria by Terence (translation)
text: For he ne had, nor could increase his line.
ref: 1550, The Mirror for Magistrates:
text: In geving me to him whom I ne can, ne may, ne ought to love.
ref: 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:
text: Mary (quoth the king) so might me mine, ne haddest thou been Earle Godwine: casting in his dish the murder of his brother Alfred, which was done to death at Elie by the Counsell of Godwine.
ref: 1576, William Lambarde, A perambulation of Kent:
text: Ne durst again his fieri face out-show.
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:
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: What happs might chance me I ne knewe.
ref: c. 1590, William Fowler, The Works of William Fowler:
text: His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: As when a ship, that flyes faire vnder saile, / An hidden rocke escaped hath vnwares, / That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile, / The Marriner yet halfe amazed stares / At perill past, and yet it doubt ne dares / To ioy at his foole-happie ouersight.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: And now sweete death most welcome vnto mee, thy stroakes ne can, ne shall me once dismay.
ref: 1591, John Phillip, A Commemoration on the Life and Death of the Right Honourable, Sir Christopher Hatton:
text: And twenty thousand infants that ne wot the right hand from the left.
ref: 1592, Robert Greene, A Looking Glass for London:
text: But when he spoke, his plenteous words did flow / Like to thick-falling flakes of winter snow, / Ne any couth his wit so hiely straine.
ref: 1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors:
text: Now, siker ( Wernocke ) thou hast split the marke / Albe that I ne wot I han mis-song: / But, for I am so yong, I dread my warke / Woll be misualued both of old and yong.
ref: 1614, John Davies of Hereford, Eclogue Between Young Willy the SInger of His Native Pastorals, and Old Wernocke His Friend:
text: Whilom in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth, / Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight [...].
ref: 1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I, 2:
text: "God's nails, I ne knew her. I went to another stead in the yard to be further from her cries."
ref: 2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:
qualifier: obsolete or deliberately archaic
glosses: Not.