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Origin and history of neither

neither(conj., adv.)

"not one or the other," Middle English neither, naither, nether, from Old English nawþer, contraction of nahwæþer, literally "not of two," from na "no" (from PIE root *ne- "not") + hwæþer "which of two" (see whether). Spelling altered c. 1200 by association with either. Paired with nor from c. 1300; earlier with ne. Meaning "not in any case, in no case, not at all" is from 1550s. Also used in late Old English as a pronoun. As an adjective, "not either," mid-14c.

Entries linking to neither

nor(conj.)

"and not," mid-13c., from ne (adv.) "no" + or (conj.), or else a contraction of Middle English nauther (see neither) and influenced in form by or. Generally correlative to neither or some other negative.

whether(conj., adv.)

"which, of two; which one," Old English hwæðer, hweðer "which of two; whichever," implying choice of alternatives, from Proto-Germanic *gihwatharaz. This is reconstructed to be from the interrogative base *khwa- "who" (from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns) + comparative suffix *-theraz.

Its comparative form is either. Also in Old English as a pronoun and adjective. Phrase whether or not (also whether or no) recorded from 1650s.

There are cognate compounds in Old Saxon hwedar, Old Norse hvarr, Gothic huaþar, Old High German hwedar "which of the two," German weder "neither;" and beyond Germanic in Sanskrit katarah, Avestan katara-, Greek poteros, Latin uter "which of the two, either of two," Lithuanian katras "which of the two," Old Church Slavonic koteru "which."

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neuter
late 14c., neutre, in grammar, of nouns, pronouns, etc., "neither masculine nor feminine in gender," also of verbs, "having...middle or reflexive meaning, neither active nor passive," from Latin neuter "of the neuter gender," literally "neither one...The Latin word is probably a loan-translation of Greek oudeteros "neither, neuter."...From 1520s it also had the sense of "taking neither side" which now generally goes with neutral (adj.)....
indifferent
impartial" or directly from Latin indifferentem (nominative indifferens) "not differing, not particular, of no consequence, neither...Extended sense of "apathetic, no more inclined to one thing than to another" first recorded early 15c.; that of "neither...good nor bad" is from 1530s, on notion of "neither more nor less advantageous," but since 17c. it has tended toward "rather...
neutral
with either side" (probably from a similar meaning of neutralis in Medieval Latin), from Latin neutralis, from neuter "neither...the one nor the other, neither of two" (see neuter (adj.))....Chemistry sense of "exhibiting neither acid nor alkaline qualities" is from 1660s....
so-so
mid-15c., "moderately well," 1520s, "indifferently, neither too poorly nor too well, only thus," from so (adv.), which is...As an adjective, "mediocre, neither too good nor too bad," 1540s....
mineral
Meaning "material substance that is neither animal nor vegetable" is attested from early 15c....As an adjective, early 15c., "neither animal nor vegetable, inorganic," from Old French mineral and directly from Medieval...
scoptic
The root may be that of [skeptomai] 'to look about' or [skaptō] 'to dig', but neither is immediately obvious....
commensal
Biological sense "one of two animals or plants which live together but neither at the expense of the other" is attested from...
nether
Old English niþera, neoþera "down, downwards, lower, below, beneath," from Proto-Germanic *nitheraz (source also of Old Saxon nithar, Old Norse niðr, which contributed to the English word, Old Frisian nither, Dutch neder, German nieder), from comparative of PIE *ni- "down, below"
either
Old English ægðer, contraction of æghwæðer (pron., adv., conj.) "each of two, both," from a "always" (see aye (adv.)) + ge- collective prefix + hwæðer "which of two, whether" (see whether). Cognate with Old Frisian eider, Dutch ieder, Old High German eogiwedar, German jeder "eith
abolish
"put an end to, do away with," mid-15c., from Old French aboliss-, present-participle stem of abolir "to abolish" (15c.), from Latin abolere "destroy, efface, annihilate; cause to die out, retard the growth of," which is perhaps from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + the second ele

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