mightn't

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

might +‎ -n't

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmaɪtənt/, [ˈmaɪʔn̩ʔ]
  • Audio (US)(file)

Verb[edit]

mightn't

  1. (British) might not (negative auxiliary[1])
    • 1931, Mary Hunter Austin, Starry Adventure, page 274:
      Her driver was new to the country; he mightn't be prepared for the leaping of the yellow water down dry arroyos, swift as the pouncings of a cat, or the snake-like slidings of tons of loosened rock and clay from the steep potreros […]
    • 1963, Perry Mason, The Case of the Greek Goddess (Television Season 6, Episode 25)
      “But, mightn’t there have been something unusual about the Stimatis contract itself?” [Perry Mason cross-examining Roger Correll.]
    • 1974, Mario Vargas Llosa, Conversation in the Cathedral: A Novel, Harper & Row (First Rayo Edition, 2005), page 275:
      "But at night she would still think the same thing: mightn't it be that he wouldn't come to see her anymore?"

Coordinate terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513
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