neuter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English neutre, also neuter,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French neutre and directly borrowed from Latin neuter (“not one or the other, neither; of neuter gender”),^[4][5][3][6] formed from ne- (“not”) and uter (“either, which of two”).^[4][7][8][9] The Latin prefix goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ne- (“not”),^[7][8] and uter is related to whether,^[9][7][5] which makes the Latin word almost identical in form to neither.^[10] Barnhart and Etymonline consider it probably a loan translation of Ancient Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros, “neither, neuter”).^[5][7] The verb is formed from the adjective, or from the noun as well according to Barnhart.^[4][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In grammar, of neither masculine nor feminine gender: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4][5][2] Latin neutrum had already been used of this gender in an English context in Ælfric's Old English Grammar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the special use for grammatical gender arose soon in Latin and that this is the sense in which English adopted it.^[10] English first extended it to verbs that are neither active nor passive and to the noun (about 1450, in a grammar),^[4][5] and then used it from the turn of the 16th century for what is now usually called neutral: a person standing outside a dispute and, in the 1520s, something taking neither side,^[4][7] with to stand neuter from 1548.^[4] Johnson's first sense in 1755 is still "indifferent, not engaged on either side".^[11] The biological sense, of having no sex, appeared before 1618,^[4] and spread to sterile worker insects from 1772^[4][7] and to plants without functional stamens and pistils from 1785.^[4] Applied to animals deprived of their sexual organs, it is first recorded in 1893, of cats,^[4] while Etymonline also dates the verb to 1893, of dogs,^[7] against the OED's, Barnhart's and Merriam-Webster's 1903.^[4][5][3] The verb later extended to making something ineffectual, as in politics (1972).^[4]

Timeline

• before 1398 – in grammar, of neither masculine nor feminine gender.^[4][5][2]
• c. 1450 – of a verb, neither active nor passive.^[4] Barnhart dates the noun, a neuter word or form, to the same time.^[5]
• 1494 – of a person, not disputatious, later neutral in a dispute.^[4]
• 1525 – taking neither side, neutral, in Lord Berners's Froissart.^[4]
• 1548 – to stand neuter, to remain neutral.^[4]
• before 1591 – belonging to neither of two categories (obsolete by 1890).^[4]
• before 1618 – lacking sex; asexual, androgynous.^[4]
• 1772 – of a social insect, sterile.^[4]
• 1785 – of a plant, without functional stamens and pistils.^[4]
• 1893 – of a cat or other animal, castrated or spayed.^[4]
• 1903 – verb, to castrate or spay, in Simpson's Book of the Cat.^[4][5][3] Etymonline's date is 1893, of dogs.^[7]
• 1972 – verb, to make harmless or ineffectual.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In grammar, of the gender that is neither masculine nor feminine.^[12][3][8]
2. (rare) Of a verb, neither active nor passive; intransitive.^[3][8][4]
3. Of an animal or insect, with undeveloped or nonfunctional sexual organs; sterile.^[12][8][4]
4. Of a plant, without functional stamens and pistils.^[8][4]
5. Of an animal, castrated or spayed.^[8][4]
6. Of a person, asexual or androgynous.^[12][8][4]
7. (archaic) Taking neither side; neutral.^[3][6][4]

Noun

1. In grammar, a word of the neuter gender, or the gender itself.^[12][3][6]
2. A worker among ants, bees and other social insects.^[12][3][6]
3. A spayed or castrated animal.^[3][6]
4. (archaic) A person who stays neutral in a dispute.^[4][6][11]

Verb

1. To castrate or spay: We had the kitten neutered in spring.^[3][4][6]
2. To make powerless or ineffectual; to neutralize.^[4][6]

Word family

• neutered
• neuterdom

Related words

• neutral
• neutrality
• neutralize
• neutron
• neither
• whether

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins