mayn't
(Redirected from mayn’t)
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /meɪnt/, IPA(key): /ˈmeɪ.ənt/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪnt, -eɪənt
- Hyphenation: may‧n't
Verb
[edit]mayn't (third-person singular simple present mayn't, no present participle, simple past mightn't, no past participle)
- (colloquial, now rare, dated) may not (negative auxiliary[1])
- 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 40.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:
- I mayn't have much head, master, but I’ve head enough to remember those that use me ill.
- 1861, George Eliot, chapter 17, in Silas Marner:
- "Now, father," said Nancy, "is there any call for you to go home to tea? Mayn't you just as well stay with us?--such a beautiful evening as it's likely to be."
- 1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Mock Turtle’s Story”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 142:
- "Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't believe it—"
- 1914, Saki, The Romancers:
- You mayn't hardly believe it, but at the present moment I am absolutely without a farthing.
- 1930, H. P. Lovecraft, Madusa's Coil:
- I can't help about other people. But I surely would like to have a spot to stop till daylight. Still - if people don't relish this place, mayn't it be because it's getting so run-down?
Coordinate terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]contraction of "may not", might not
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References
[edit]- ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -n't
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪnt
- Rhymes:English/eɪnt/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/eɪənt
- Rhymes:English/eɪənt/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English colloquialisms
- English terms with rare senses
- English dated terms
- English terms with quotations
- English auxiliary verb forms
- English contractions
- English defective verbs