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# nay

«nay» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **no; rather** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### kind

archaic word

### modern equivalent

no; rather

### part of speech

adverb and interjection

### meaning for a pupil

A word for "no", or a word that corrects what has just been said ("rather"). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/N/nay/#m1)

### how it differs from today

Old-fashioned; today we say "no" and "not", and "nay" is only heard in old or formal speech.

### examples

- And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.' (Torah GEN.18.15, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/N/nay/#x1)
- “Nay,” purred Bagheera, “that may not be. (The Jungle Book) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/N/nay/#x2)
- And they said unto him: 'Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. (Torah GEN.42.10, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/N/nay/#x3)

### primary record

nay

### tests

manual 10.2; corpora 124 (Torah 9, tales 115, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 14.0 (Torah alone 21.0); Wiktionary archaic (first sense)

### In the corpora

- [And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.457/)
- [And they said unto him: 'Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1371/)
- [And he said unto them: 'Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1373/)
- [And the people said unto Joshua: 'Nay; but we will serve the LORD.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JOS.668/)
- [Nay, my sons; for it is no good report which I hear the LORD'S people do spread abroad.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.55/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «nay» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/N/nay/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.