See also: non, nón, nőn, and Non.

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

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).

PrefixEdit

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)
Usage notesEdit
  • 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.
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Latin nona (nine).

PrefixEdit

non-

  1. prevocalic form of nona-
Derived termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

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

Further readingEdit

DanishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈnʌn/, /ˈnʌnˀ/, /nʌnˈ/

PrefixEdit

non-

  1. non-

Derived termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

PrefixEdit

non-

  1. (organic chemistry) non-

Derived termsEdit

See alsoEdit

IndonesianEdit

EtymologyEdit

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).

PronunciationEdit

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

PrefixEdit

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 termsEdit

Further readingEdit