nor
Language: English
Part of speech: conj
Pronunciation: enpr: nô
ipa: /nɔː/
enpr: nôr
ipa: /nɔɹ/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
homophone: gnaw (non-rhotic)
Etymology: From Middle English nauther, from nother. Cognate with neither. By surface analysis, not + or.
Senses: examples: text: Nor did I stop to think, but ran.
text: They are happy, nor need we worry.
text: Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.
ref: 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
text: And, moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the crusade should be accomplished; nor did I mention it […]
ref: 1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman:
text: The cheeks drop in; the body bows;
Man dies: nor is there hope in dust: […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54:
glosses: And... not (introducing a negative statement, without necessarily following one).
examples: text: I am neither hungry nor thirsty nor tired.
text: I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: But neither breath of Morn when she ascends / With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun / On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, / Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; / Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night / With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon, / Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2020, page 68:
text: For most people, this sacrifice is made easily and instinctively. Not so for otroverts, who are neither willing nor able to passively adopt the social scripts that others do. To the otrovert, who is constantly engaged with the choices and consequences of their individual life, social norms follow a circular logic: […]
ref: 2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think:
glosses: A function word introducing each except the first term of a series, indicating none of them is true.
examples: text: I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: Nor you nor your house were so much as spoken of before I disbased myself.
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii:
glosses: Neither.
examples: text: The struggle didn't end, nor was it diminished.
text: I hardly spoke with nor listened to anybody else.
text: I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: Used to introduce a further negative statement.
examples: text: He's no better nor you.
text: 'I used to think, when you first come into these parts, as you were no better nor you should be.'
ref: 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner, London: Penguin Books, published 1967, page 131:
text: I wouldn’t like to live here though, not after dark. Sooner you nor me.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92:
glosses: Than.
Derived terms: buff nor stye
common sense is neither common nor sensical
for love nor money
gentle nor simple
hide nor hair
make head nor tail of
make neither head nor tail of
meddle nor make
neither a borrower nor a lender be
neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring
neither fish nor flesh
neither fish nor fowl
neither here nor there
neither use nor ornament
neither … nor
rhyme nor reason
tide nor time tarrieth no man
Related terms: neither