Neither (short story)
WiktionaryText

Etymology


Alteration of , from nawþer, contraction of nahwæþer, corresponding to + .

Determiner



  1. not one of two; not either
    Neither definition seems correct.

Conjunction



  1. not either (used with nor)
    Neither I nor you like it.
    Neither now, nor ever will he forsake his mother.
  2. also not
    If you won’t correct it, neither will I.

Adverb


neither
  1. similarly not
    Just as you would not correct it, neither would I.

Usage notes

  • Neither is used to mean none of two or more. Although some suggest that using the word neither with more than two items is incorrect, it has been commonly used to refer to more than two subjects since the 17th century. The more modern usage does prefer none with more than two things.

  • When used in the set phrase me neither, neither is invariably pronounced -iːðə(r).

  • There is considerable variation in the number of the verb employed with this construction.

  • Examples:

  • "That woman was neither a collector nor an art critic, but she understood the meaning I meant to give that work." — Marcelle Ferron

  • "Has anyone ever loved you so much that they tried to kill you, or perhaps sucked you down into a hole so that you had to kill them to get away? Yeah, me neither." — Maynard James Keenan

  • "You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work." — Lee Trevino

  • "As if it were gold and could be neither good nor bad nor worth more nor worth less but must always be worth the same no matter what." — Alex Miller

  • "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!" — Rudyard Kipling

  • "Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all." — Jesus Christ Superstar
 
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