different between neuter vs neater

English

Alternative forms

• n., n, ntr. (abbreviation, grammar)

Etymology

Latin neuter, from ne (“not”) + uter (“whether”), a semantic loan from Koine Greek ????????? (oudéteros); compare English whether and neither.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?nju?t?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n(j)u?t?/
• Rhymes: -u?t?(?)

Adjective

neuter (not generally comparable, comparative more neuter, superlative most neuter)

1. (now uncommon) Neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.

   Synonyms: impartial, neutral

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II, Scene 3,^[1]

     But if I could, by Him that gave me life,

     I would attach you all and make you stoop

     Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;

     But since I cannot, be it known to you

     I do remain as neuter.

   • 1672, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Westminster-Abbey, on the Twenty Ninth of May, 1672. Being the Anniversary Festival appointed by Act of Parliament, for the Happy Restoration of King Charles II,” in Twelve Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions, London: Jonah Bowyer, 1727, 6th edition, Volume 5, page 271,^[2]

     This is certain, that in all our Undertakings God will be either our Friend or our Enemy. For Providence never stands neuter […]
2. (grammar) Having a form which is not masculine nor feminine; or having a form which is not of common gender.

3. (grammar) Intransitive.

   Synonym: intransitive

4. (biology) Sexless: having no or imperfectly developed sex organs.
   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, London: John Murray, 1860, Chapter 7, page 242,^[3]

     […] I should never have anticipated that natural selection could have been efficient in so high a degree, had not the case of these neuter insects convinced me of the fact.

5. (literary) Sexless, nonsexual.

Synonyms

• (biological): see sexless, genderless

Coordinate terms

• (grammar): masculine, feminine

Translations

Noun

neuter (plural neuters)

1. (biology) An organism, either vegetable or animal, which at its maturity has no generative organs, or but imperfectly developed ones, as a plant without stamens or pistils, as the garden Hydrangea; especially, one of the imperfectly developed females of certain social insects, as of the ant and the common honeybee, which perform the labors of the community, and are called workers.
2. A person who takes no part in a contest; someone remaining neutral.
   • 1571, Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries, “Epistle Dedicatorie,”^[4]

     But if you should beecome eyther a counterfayt Protestant, or a perverse Papist, or a colde and carelesse newter (which God forbid) the harme could not be expressed which you should do to your native Cuntrie.
3. (grammar) The neuter gender.
4. (grammar) A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words.
5. (grammar) An intransitive verb or state-of-being verb.
   • 1820, M. Santagnello, A Dictionary of the Peculiarities of the Italian Language, G. and W. B. Whittaker, page 185:

     Make one do, or act (to), fare fare, fare agire, with an accusative when the verb is a neuter, and with a dative when otherwise.

   • 1847, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Essay the First; On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál Tribes, in Three Parts, J. Thomas, page 119:

     Compound verbs other than those already spoken of whereby neuters are made active, are very rare, as I have already hinted under the head of nouns.

   • 1971, Harry Hoijer, “Athapaskan Morphology”, in Jesse O. Sawyer (editor), Studies in American Indian Languages, University of California Press (1973), ?ISBN, page 130:

     In all the Apachean languages, verbs are divided into two major categories, neuters and actives, each of which may be further divided into intransitives, transitives, and passives.

Coordinate terms

• (grammar, gender/noun): masculine, feminine

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:neuter.

Translations

Verb

neuter (third-person singular simple present neuters, present participle neutering, simple past and past participle neutered)

1. To remove sex organs from an animal to prevent it from having offspring; to castrate or spay, particularly as applied to domestic animals.
2. To rid of sexuality.
3. To drastically reduce the effectiveness of something.

Synonyms

• castrate, desex, doctor, fix, spay

Translations

Anagrams

• retune, run tee, tenure, tureen, untree

Latin

Etymology

From ne (“not”) +? uter (“either”). In the grammatical sense, a semantic loan from Koine Greek ????????? (oudéteros), from ???? (oudé, “not”) +? ?????? (héteros, “one or the other (of two)”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?ne.u.ter/, [?ne?t??r]
• (Late Latin) IPA^(key): /?neu?.ter/, [?n?u?t??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?neu?.ter/, [?n??u?t??r]
• Note: always trisyllabic in Classical, often disyllabic in Late Latin.

Adjective

neuter (feminine neutra, neuter neutrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er, pronominal)

1. neither
2. (grammar) neuter (gender)
3. (grammar) neuter, intransitive (of a verb)

Usage notes

• In the grammatical senses, the declension of this adjective is not pronominal, but attributive (regular). Thus for the sense of the grammatical category of "neuter gender", the genitive is neutr? (generis), and the dative is neutr? (gener?).

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er, pronominal).

Derived terms

• neutr?

Descendants

• Friulian: neutri
• Italian: neutro
• Piedmontese: nèutr

References

• neuter in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• neuter in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• neuter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[6], London: Macmillan and Co.

English

Pronunciation

Adjective

neater

1. comparative form of neat: more neat

Anagrams

• Tareen, entera, renate