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Origin and history of none

none(pron.)

Middle English non, none, from Old English nan "not one, not any, no person; not the least part," from ne "not" (see no) + an "one" (see one). Cognate with Old Saxon, Middle Low German nen, Old Norse neinn, Middle Dutch, Dutch neen, Old High German, German nein "no," and analogous to Latin non- (see non-). It is thus the negative of one, an, and a (1).

As an adverb, "1650s, "by no means;" 1799 as "in no respect or degree, to no extent." As an adjective from late Old English; since c. 1600 reduced to no except in a few archaic phrases, especially before vowels, such as none other, none the worse.

Entries linking to none

a(1)

indefinite article, the form of an used before consonants, mid-12c., a weakened form of Old English an "one" (see an). The disappearance of the -n- before consonants was mostly complete by mid-14c. After c. 1600 the -n- also began to vanish before words beginning with a sounded -h-; it still is retained by many writers before unaccented syllables in h- or (e)u- but is now no longer normally spoken as such. The -n- also lingered (especially in southern England dialect) before -w- and -y- through 15c.

It also is used before nouns of singular number and a few plural nouns when few or great many is interposed.

indefinite article before words beginning with vowels, 12c., from Old English an (with a long vowel) "one; lone," also used as a prefix meaning "single, lone" (as in anboren "only-begotten," anhorn "unicorn," anspræce "speaking as one"). See one for the divergence of that word from this. Also see a, of which this is the older, fuller form.

In other European languages, identity of the indefinite article and the word for "one" remains explicit (French un, German ein, etc.). Old English got by without indefinite articles: He was a good man in Old English was he wæs god man.

In texts of Shakespeare, etc., an as a word introducing a clause stating a condition or comparison conjunction is a reduced form of and in this now-archaic sense of "if" (a usage first attested late 12c.); especially before it.