"N" Word Origins

nonmurderer

Origin

From non- + murderer.

nonna

Italian

Borrowed directly from Italian nonna, "grandmother."

nonnational

Origin

From non- + national.

nonnormality

Origin

From non- + normality.

nonnumerical

Origin

From non- + numerical.

nonny

Origin

Possibly a shortened, diminutive form of "anonymous."

nonobservant

Origin

From non- + observant.

nonownership

Origin

From non- + ownership.

nonpareil

Origin

From Late Middle English non-parail (“unparalleled, nonpareil”) [and other forms], from Middle French nonpareille, nonpareil (“unparalleled”) (obsolete), from non- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + pareil (“alike, like, same”). Pareil is derived from Old French pareil, from Late Latin pāriculus (“equal; like; of a number: even”), from Latin pār (“equal; like; of a number: even; suitable”) + -culus (a variant of -ulus (suffix forming diminutives)). Noun sense 4 (size of type standardized at 6-point) is usually taken to derive from the attractive type cut by the brothers Giovanni and Gregorio De Gregori (fl. 1482–1503 and 1496–1527 respectively) for their 1498 edition of the divine offices in Venice; it was for a long time the smallest-sized type in use.

nonpartisan

Origin

From non- + partisan.

nonpathetic

Origin

From non- + pathetic.

nonpatronage

Origin

From non- + patronage.

nonpayment

Origin

From Middle English nonpayement, nonpaiement, nounpaiement, non paiement, equivalent to non- (“no”, adjective) + payment.

nonperformance

Origin

From non- + performance.

nonpertinent

Origin

From Middle English non-pertinent, equivalent to non (“not, not at all”, adverb) + pertinent.

nonphysics

Origin

From non- + physics.

nonplussed

Origin

From nonplus (“state of bewilderment or perplexity”, noun) or nonplus (“to bewilder or perplex (someone)”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives, and the past tense and past participle forms of verbs). Nonplus (noun) is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no further, no more”), from nōn (“not”) + plūs (“additionally, more; further”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The etymological sense is similar to being left speechless as a result of confusion: the nonplussed person can say or do “no more”. Adjective sense 2 (“unaffected”) is probably from a misinterpretation of the first element of the word as the prefix non- meaning “not”.

nonpolitical

Origin

From non- + political.

nonpossession

Origin

From non- + possession.

nonpracticing

Origin

From non- + practicing.

nonprofessional

Origin

From non- + professional.

nonprofit

Origin

From non- plus profit.

nonprostitute

Origin

From non- + prostitute.

nonpublic

Origin

From non- + public.

nonpunishable

Origin

From non- + punishable.

nonreal

Origin

From non- + real.

nonrecurring

Origin

From non- + recurring.

nonregular

Origin

From non- + regular.

nonrehearsal

Origin

From non- + rehearsal.

nonremitted

Origin

From non- + remitted.

nonrepeating

Origin

From non- + repeating.

nonresident

Origin

From non- + resident.

nonresistant

Origin

From non- + resistant.

nonretraction

Origin

From non- + retraction.

nonsane

Origin

From non- + sane.

nonsecular

Origin

From non- + secular.

nonself

Origin

From non- + self.

nonsense

Origin · 1610

From non- ("no, not") plus sense, coined around the 1610s.

nonsensical

Origin

From nonsense plus the adjective suffix -ical.

nonsensitive

Origin

From non- + sensitive.

nonsignificant

Origin

From non- + significant.

nonspecific

Origin

From non- + specific.

nonstandard

Origin

From non- + standard.

nonsticking

Origin

From non- + sticking.

nonstop

Origin

From non- plus stop.

nonsweet

Origin

From non- + sweet.

nontemporal

Origin

From non- + temporal.

nonterminating

Origin

From non- + terminating.