Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The letter n.
  • noun Printing A space equal to half the width of an em.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The name of the letter N, n. It is rarely written, the symbol N, n, being used instead.
  • noun In printing, a space half as wide as an em, sometimes used as a standard in reckoning the amount of a compositor's work. See em, 2.
  • noun An adverbial or prepositional prefix of Greek origin, meaning primarily ‘in’: chiefly in scientific or technical words of modern formation, as in encephalon, enanthema, etc.
  • noun A common adverbial or prepositional prefix, representing Latin in-, meaning primarily ‘in’ or ‘into.’
  • noun A feminine suffix, of which only a few relics exist in native English words, as, for example, vixen, from Anglo-Saxon fyxen (= German füchsin), a female fox: in some instances regarded as having a diminutive force, as in maiden, from Anglo-Saxon mægden, etc. See vixen, maiden, and compare elfin.
  • noun A suffix forming adjectives from nouns of material, as ashen, ashen, earthen, oaken, wooden, golden, sometimes simply -n, as cedarn, eldern, silvern, etc.
  • noun The plural suffix of a few nouns, as oxen, brethren, children, and (archaic and poetical) eyne or een (= eyen), kine (= kyen), shoon, dial. hosen, housen, peasen, etc.
  • noun A suffix of various other origins besides those mentioned above: often ultimately identical with -an (Latin -anus), as in citizen, denizen, dozen, etc., but having also, as in often, midden, etc., other sources ascertainable upon reference to the word concerned.
  • noun Abbreviations of encyclopedia.
  • noun A termination of various origin, used in the formation of verbs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Print.) Half an em, that is, half of the unit of space in measuring printed matter. See em.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • abbreviation English
  • preposition Used in various phrases borrowed from French (see "Derived terms" below).
  • noun The name of the Latin script letter N/n.
  • noun typography A unit of measurement equal to half of an em (half of the height of the type in use).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun half the width of an em

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The name of the letter comes from Latin en. Typographic sense 1793.

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Examples

  • La idea es muy buena y original, pero las fechas no concuerdan muy bien y ademas no creo que los tamaños en los distintos años de los imperios se correspondan con su poder. ¿en funcion de que estan hechos los tamaños?

    Visualizing empires decline on Vimeo 2010

  • Imagino que en época de clases estas búsquedas pueden deberse a algunos estudiantes que están investigando, pero ¿en pleno verano cómo pueden convencerme de que es gente que lo hace por obligación?

    veruscio Diary Entry veruscio 2009

  • Though she denies the liaison, she says of him that there was not "_en ce siècle-là de son sexe et de sa qualité rien de semblable en valeur, reputation, grace, et esprit_."

    Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois George Chapman

  • Antonio de Almaraz bedel puso en la posesion del dicho salario al dicho padre mº. fray Luis de Leon en la catedra questá en el general mayor de theologia de escuelas mayores, el qual la tomó é apprehendió sin contradicion ninguna, y _en lugar de posesion leyó un poco_.

    Fray Luis de León A Biographical Fragment James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

  • [177] I have found a notice of a similar case in France, during the sixteenth century, in Montaigne's _Journal du Voyage en Italie en_ 1850

    Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 Sexual Inversion Havelock Ellis 1899

  • Fifteen years have passed away, and these old people, no doubt, have joined their ancestors; but I can see them still sitting in that _salle à manger_; the _buffets en vieux chêne_; the opulent candelabra _en style d'empire_; the waiter lighting the gas in the pale Parisian evening.

    Confessions of a Young Man 1892

  • She was his, as the French say, "_en droit, mais pas encore en jouissance! _"

    Patsy 1887

  • [7] I thus attempt to convey the emphasis of the words _ouk en sarki pepoithotes_, which is not precisely as if he had written _en sarki_.

    Philippian Studies Lessons in Faith and Love from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 1880

  • Entonces pensé en mi mujer y en mi hija, ¡en ti y en tu madre, hija mía!

    Novelas Cortas Pedro Antonio de Alarc��n 1862

  • I understood the currency question --- Calais en gros, and Calais _en dtail, _ forgive one who has deeply wronged you.

    The Uncommercial Traveller 1861

Comments

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  • In Japanese aesthetic vocabulary: exquisite to the point of fascination.

    October 30, 2008