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nay

adv
/neɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English nai, nei, from Old Norse nei (“no”), contraction of ne (“not”) + ei (“ever”), itself from Proto-Germanic *nai (“never”), *nē (“not”). More at no. The verb is from Middle English nayen (“to refuse, deny, gainsay”), from the interjection and adverb above.

  1. inherited from nayen — “to refuse, deny, gainsay”
  2. derived from *nai✻ — “never”
  3. derived from nei — “no”
  4. inherited from nai

Definitions

  1. No.

    • Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me, I pray you still so freely; Say me not nay, but yes, yes!

  2. Introducing a statement, without direct negation.

    • Nay, what are you smiling at so damnably?

  3. Or rather, or should I say

    Or rather, or should I say; moreover (introducing a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one).

    • His face was dirty, nay, filthy.
    • […] And proved not only horse, but cows, / Nay pigs, were of the elder house: / For beasts, when man was but a piece / Of earth himself, did th' earth possess.
    • And even in our wildest and most wandering reveries, nay in our very dreams, we shall find, if we reflect, that the imagination ran not altogether at adventures,
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. A vote against.

      • I vote nay, even though the motion is popular, because I would rather be right than popular.
      • Recently senators could fax in their yeas or nays to the committee chairman.

    2. A person who voted against.

      • The vote is 4 in favor and 20 opposed; the nays have it.

    3. A denial

      A denial; a refusal.

      • And my povert' no wight nor can nor may Make comparison, it is no nay.

    4. To refuse.

      • the cardinall then being bishop of Winchester, tooke vpon him the state of cardinall, which was naied and denaied him, by the king of most noble memorie

    5. Nary

      Nary; not any

      • 'Tis easy to do this experiment, though nay substance will do: we shall need a special one.
      • Nay man could have come out of such a situation unscathed.
      • nay other Nations [beyond the Native American ones] seem to have continued in a State of Barbarism, as long as they continued to exercise one only of these Arts [Metallurgy and Agriculture] without the other;

    6. Abbreviation of Nayarit

      Abbreviation of Nayarit: a state of Mexico.

    7. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for nay. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA