non-

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See also: non, nón, nőn, and Non.

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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

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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
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  • 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.[1]
  • 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.[1]
  • 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
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Derived terms
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English terms prefixed with non-
terms derived from not
terms derived from absence
terms derived from avoiding
terms derived from neutral
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Related terms
Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Latin nona (“nine”).

Prefix

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non-

  2. prevocalic form of nona-
Derived terms
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 6. Compounding Rules in U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, govinfo.gov

Further reading

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Danish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈnʌn/, /ˈnʌnˀ/, /nʌnˈ/

Prefix

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non-

  1. non-

Derived terms

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Danish terms prefixed with non-

References

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from French non-.

Prefix

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non-

  1. non- (not)
    Synonym: niet-
Derived terms
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Dutch terms prefixed with non- (not)

Etymology 2

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Prefix

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non-

  1. (organic chemistry) non-
Derived terms
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Dutch terms prefixed with non- (organic chemistry)

See also

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German

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Pronunciation

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Prefix

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non-

  1. (organic chemistry) non-

Derived terms

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German terms prefixed with non-

See also

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Indonesian

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Etymology

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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

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  • IPA(key): [ˈnɔn]
  • Hyphenation: non

Prefix

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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

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Indonesian terms prefixed with non-

Further reading

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