Flannery O'Connor
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Nary, most often used in the phrase "nary a" to mean "not a single," is an 18th-century alteration of the adjectival phrase "ne'er a," in which ne'er is a contraction of never. That contraction dates to the 13th century, and the word it abbreviates is even older: never can be traced back to Old English nǣfre, a combination of ne ("not" or "no") and ǣfre ("ever"). Old English ne also combined with ā ("always") to give us nā, the Old English ancestor of our no. Ā, from the Latin aevum ("age" or "lifetime") and Greek aiōn ("age"), is related to the English adverb aye, meaning "always, continually, or ever." This aye (pronounced to rhyme with say) is unrelated to the more familiar aye (pronounced to rhyme with sigh) used as a synonym of yes.
Examples of nary in a Sentence
Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2024
Instead, the second episode of 9-1-1’s eighth season — the Empire Strikes Back chapter of the bee-nado — has nary a bee in sight.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2024
But there was nary a whisper when Singapore signed an agreement regarding greater defense and security cooperation with the United States in 2005 or when the 1990 MOU was renewed in 2019.
—Bilahari Kausikan, Foreign Affairs, 16 Feb. 2021
In contrast to most movies about serial killers, this one offers nary a glimpse of violence, let alone any wallowing in sadism.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Nary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nary. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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