ne

Adverb

ne (not comparable)

1. (obsolete or deliberately archaic) Not.
   • c1500, Melusine (translation):

     For she ne dare doo, but to commande.

   • 1512, Robert Copland, The History of Helyas, Knight of The Swan‎:

     And whan the good quene herde these pyteous tydynges lytel lacked that the ne dyed for sorowe / wherfore all lamentably the began to complayne her sayenge.

   • c1520, Andria by Terence (translation):

     This shold haue bene his skuce at the lest / And it ne had bene but good & honest.

   • c1520, Andria by Terence (translation):

     O so incessaunt thow ad in thy desyre / For so that thow thy mynde now mayst haue / Thow ne caryst what thow dost requyre.

   • 1550, The Mirror for Magistrates:

     For he ne had, nor could increase his line.

   • 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:

     In geving me to him whom I ne can, ne may, ne ought to love.

   • 1576, William Lambarde, A perambulation of Kent‎:

     Mary (quoth the king) so might me mine, ne haddest thou been Earle Godwine: casting in his dish the murder of his brother Alfred, which was done to death at Elie by the Counsell of Godwine.

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

     Ne durst again his fieri face out-show.

   • 1587, George Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmershe, Jocasta:

     Ioc: How can that be and thou my ioy in warre? Po: Henceforth n'am I your ioy ne yet your sonne.

   • c. 1590, William Fowler, The Works of William Fowler‎:

     What happs might chance me I ne knewe.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     As when a ship, that flyes faire vnder saile, / An hidden rocke escaped hath vnwares, / That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile, / The Marriner yet halfe amazed stares / At perill past, and yet it doubt ne dares / To ioy at his foole-happie ouersight.

   • 1591, John Phillip, A Commemoration on the Life and Death of the Right Honourable, Sir Christopher Hatton:

     And now sweete death most welcome vnto mee, thy stroakes ne can, ne shall me once dismay.

   • 1592, Robert Greene, A Looking Glass for London:

     And twenty thousand infants that ne wot the right hand from the left.

   • 1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors‎:

     But when he spoke, his plenteous words did flow / Like to thick-falling flakes of winter snow, / Ne any couth his wit so hiely straine.

   • 1614, John Davies of Hereford, Eclogue Between Young Willy the SInger of His Native Pastorals, and Old Wernocke His Friend‎:

     Now, siker ( Wernocke ) thou hast split the marke / Albe that I ne wot I han mis-song: / But, for I am so yong, I dread my warke / Woll be misualued both of old and yong.

   • 1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I, 2:

     Whilom in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth, / Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight [...].

   • 2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:

     "God's nails, I ne knew her. I went to another stead in the yard to be further from her cries."

Conjunction

ne

1. (obsolete) Nor.
   • 1484, Original Letters, King Edward the Fifth, under the direction of his Uncle, to Otes Gilbert, Esq., commanding him to receive Knighthood at the expected Coronation‎:

     That than I shall not geve therunto faith ne credence, nor therfore put them to any maner ponyssement, before that they or any of them so accused may be at their lawful defence and answer.

   • 1489, The gouernayle of helthe‎:

     And therin is no drede nor bytternes ne expences, but therin is pure recreacyon of body and of soule soo it be donn in clene places.

   • 1489, The gouernayle of helthe‎:

     Be not to hasty ne sodenly vengeable, to poure folke doo no vyolence.

   • 1489, The gouernayle of helthe‎:

     Moreouer no man be so hardy to drynk fastyng cold water, ne after that he hath accompanyed wyth a woman, ne after gret trauayle, ne after exersice tyll he haue fyrst rested hym, ne by nyght namely yf he haue do gloue tofore.

   • 1500, The Example of Euyll Tongues:

     A false tonge wyll euer Imagyne and saye / That neuer by creature was sayd ne thought.

   • 1509, Wynkyn de Worde, The fyftene joyes of maryage‎:

     For chastyce can he not by daye ne nyght his wyfe but by his betynge maketh lyght and hote the loue bytwene her and her frende.

   • 1511, The Records of the City of Norwich‎:

     Item, that noo woman nor maide weyve any worsted stamynges ne sayes for that that thei be nott of sufficient powre to werke the said worsteddes as thei owte to be wrought, upon payne of iij s iiij d as often as thei be founde wevyng to be devyded and leuyed in maner and forme aboue expressed.

   • 1520, Richard Pynson, The Lyfe of The Blessed Martyr Saynte Thomas‎:

     That they shulde no lenger kepe ne susteyne Thomas the archebysshope.

   • 1526, The Grete Herball‎:

     The rote ought to be gadered in the begynnynge of somer and dryed in the sonne bycause [tha]¬t it corrupt ne rotte bycause of the moystnesse[,] & it may be kept two yeres;

   • 1535, Thomas Elyot, The Education or Bringing up of Children:

     For lyinge is a detestable vice, and to be hated of all men, ne to be suffred amonge seruantis ne other persones[,] howe poure estate so euer they be of.

   • 1542, Nicholas Udall, Apophthegms (translation):

     Thus some persones beeyng inuited and exhorted to falle to the studie of lettres, make their excuse that thei bee sickely, that thei can not slepe ne take their naturall reste in the nightes.

   • 1558, Thomas Phaer, The Aeneid (translation):

     We Moores be not so base of wit, ne yet so blunt of mynd.

   • c. 1560, Edward Gosynhill, The Schoolhouse of Women‎:

     The deuyll gossyp, ought me a shame / And prayde I am nowe, euerye penye I wolde god he had, be blinde and lame / The daye and houre, he fyrste woed me / Ware not gossyp, these chyldren thre I wolde not tary, ye may be sure / Longer with hym, daye ne houre.

   • 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:

     Neither extremitie, ne gentle meanes could boote; she hydeth close within her brest, her secret sorowes roote.

   • 1562, Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet:

     Ne on her teares or plaint, at all to have remorse, but (if they can not with her will,) to bring the mayde perforce.

   • 1570, John Thynne, The Debate betweene Pride and Lowlines‎:

     His hart encreaseth not thereby ne lesseth as edoon these fooles.

   • 1577, The Hereford Municipal Manuscript‎:

     And that no victualer ne other person or persons forestall any kynde of victualls cominge to the said Cyty or within the precyncte of the same before the same victualls be come to the place.

   • 1587, George Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmershe, Jocasta:

     Ioc: How can that be and thou my ioy in warre? Po: Henceforth n'am I your ioy ne yet your sonne.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But to her cry they list not lenden eare, / Ne ought the more their mightie strokes surceasse.

   • 1634, W. Lathum, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Whose worth all outward is in shew alone / But inward sent hath not, ne vertue none.

   • 1798, Samuel Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, ll. 443-6:

     The pang, the curse, with which they died, / Had never pass'd away; / I could not draw my een from theirs / Ne turn them up to pray.

Adverb

ne (not comparable)

1. (New Zealand) "Isn't that so?" (used in representations of Maori English). [from 19th c.]
   • 1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 6:

     Then, he had only chuckled again and said, “Well, we got him on the way, ne?”

Adverb

ne

1. (Stenoscript) Abbreviation of any.

Usage notes

• The form née is used when the pronoun isn't followed by a clitic.

See also

Derived terms

• newa (“and”)