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nor
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "nor"
Translingual
Etymology
Symbol
nor
See also
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nô, IPA(key): /nɔː/
- (General American) enPR: nôr, IPA(key): /nɔɹ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
- Homophone: gnaw (non-rhotic)
Etymology 1
From Middle English nauther, from nother. Cognate with neither. By surface analysis, not + or.
Conjunction
nor
- (literary) And... not (introducing a negative statement, without necessarily following one).
- Nor did I stop to think, but ran.
- They are happy, nor need we worry.
- 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
- Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.
- 1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman:
- And, moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the crusade should be accomplished; nor did I mention it […]
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54:
- The cheeks drop in; the body bows;
Man dies: nor is there hope in dust: […]
- A function word introducing each except the first term of a series, indicating none of them is true.
- I am neither hungry nor thirsty nor tired.
- 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]:
- I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.
- 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:
- 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.
- 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 27 October 2020, 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.
- 2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think:
- 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: […]
- (archaic) Neither.
- 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]:
- I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.
- 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii:
- Nor you nor your house were so much as spoken of before I disbased myself.
- Used to introduce a further negative statement.
- The struggle didn't end, nor was it diminished.
- I hardly spoke with nor listened to anybody else.
- 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:
- 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.
- (UK, dialect) Than.
- He's no better nor you.
- 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner, London: Penguin Books, published 1967, page 131:
- 'I used to think, when you first come into these parts, as you were no better nor you should be.'
- 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92:
- I wouldn’t like to live here though, not after dark. Sooner you nor me.
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
Translations
nor
|
See also
Etymology 2
From Etymology 1 (sense 2 above), reinterpreted as not + or or negation + or.
Noun
nor (plural nors)
- (logic, electronics) Alternative form of NOR.
Coordinate terms
Anagrams
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Aromanian
Noun
nor
- alternative form of norã
Basque
Champenois
Czech
Dutch
Megleno-Romanian
Norman
Polish
Romanian
Slovene
Swedish
Veps
Yola
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