non-

See also: Appendix:Variations of "non"

English

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnɒn/, /ˌnɒn/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnɑn/, /ˌnɑn/
    • Audio (California):(file)
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Australia) IPA(key): /ˈnɔn/, /ˌnɔn/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): [ˈnɔ̟n], [ˌnɔ̟n]

Etymology 1

    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

    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”)
      1. 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
        • 2013 May 13, Judith Shulevitz, “The Lethality of Loneliness”, in The New Republic‎[1], archived from the original on 31 March 2015:
          Back in the mid-’90s, when Cacioppo was at Ohio State University (he is now at the University of Chicago), he and his colleagues sorted undergraduates into three groups—the non-lonely, the sort-of-sometimes lonely, and the lonely.
      2. 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
      3. 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
      4. 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
    • 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
    Derived terms
    English terms prefixed with non-
    terms derived from not
    terms derived from avoiding
    terms derived from neutral
    Translations

    Etymology 2

      From Latin nōnus (“ninth”).

      Prefix

      non-

      1. prevocalic form of nona-
      Derived terms

      References

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

      Further reading

      Danish

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ˈnʌn/, /ˈnʌnˀ/, /nʌnˈ/

      Prefix

      non-

      1. non-

      Derived terms

      Danish terms prefixed with non-

      References

      Dutch

      Etymology 1

      Borrowed from French non-.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /nɔn/

      Prefix

      non-

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

      Etymology 2

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

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /noːn/
      • Audio:(file)

      Prefix

      non-

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

      See also

      • Category:nl:Hydrocarbon chain prefixes

      Finnish

      Etymology

      < English non-

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ˈnon-/, [ˈno̞n-]

      Prefix

      non-

      1. (in loanwords) non-

      Derived terms

      Finnish terms prefixed with non-

      French

      Etymology

      From non.

      Prefix

      non-

      1. non-

      Derived terms

      Further reading

      German

      Pronunciation

      Prefix

      non-

      1. non- (negation prefix)
      2. (organic chemistry) non-

      Derived terms

      See also

      • Category:de:Hydrocarbon chain prefixes

      Further reading

      • “non-”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎[2] (in German)

      Indonesian

      Etymology

      Borrowed from Dutch non-, from Middle French non- (“not, lack of, failure to”), from Old French non- and Medieval Latin nōn (“not”), from Old Latin noinu, noinom, from ne oinom (“not one”).

      Pronunciation

      Prefix

      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.

      Synonyms

      Derived terms

      Further reading