More Ways to Say No
“No” means No, right? English has given us more ways to say No than I realized. And that may come in handy.
I Said No
Years ago, my husband ordered fish tacos in our favorite Mexican restaurant. I was appalled. Fish and tacos do not go together, dear. He and my mom, who was visiting disagreed. EWW! Don’t get me wrong, I like fish and I like tacos. I don’t know where it came from, but fish seemed like a protein that just didn’t mesh with salsa, lettuce, and cheese.
“Just try it…”
I just couldn’t do it. It seemed repulsive. I know, I know. Lots of people love fish tacos. The thought of the combo just grossed me out. I wholeheartedly agreed with Steve Jobs, “It’s only by saying ‘No’ that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”
What was really important to me… In that restaurant, what I wanted my taste buds to concentrate on was my favorite chicken taco salad as well as lots of chips and salsa. And don’t forget my non-alcoholic kiwi margarita.
Other Ways to Say No
I refused with a simple No. They shrugged, sure I was missing out.
Below, I’ve listed a few other ways I could have declined. Each of these words has a common Proto-Indo-European root *ne- with the sense of “not”. Following each is a meaning from its Etymonline.com entry.
No: “not at all”
Nay: “no”
Never: “not ever”
Null: “not any”
None: “not one”
Nothing: “no thing”
Neither: “not one or the other”
Nor: “and not”
Negative: “deny, say no”
Questioning None
When a student was looking at done and none. We wondered if none has an <no> base with an <-ne> suffix like <do> + <-ne>, we looked up the etymology. We learned that none comes from an Old English word nan, from a combination of ne “not” and an “one”. It’s an Old English compound word.
Then I slid down the No rabbit hole to check out the other nay-saying relatives. Willy-Nilly is a fun one. I’ve used that word to describe something done in a disorderly way like “clothes scattered willy-nilly on the floor.” It can be used that way, but it originally meant and is still used to say “without choice“, whether you agree or not.
If my mom and husband had ordered fish tacos for me, I might have said, “They ordered fish tacos for me, willy-nilly”.
Deny and Renege
Deny come from Latin denegare “reject, refuse”. This one reminded me that I’ve mistakenly thought <ny> was a bound base. Bound bases cannot be a complete, usable English word without an affix, either a prefix or a suffix. But in order for it to be a base, either bound or free, it has to be used in another word carrying the same meaning. So far, I haven’t found another one.
Renege shares the same Latin root as the deny. This one has a Latinate <re-> prefix rather than a <de-> + negare “refuse”. The <re-> is described as an intensive prefix, “giving force or emphasis” per Etymonline’s Introduction and Explanation page. Renege’s modern usage like, “He reneged on his promise to take us to the pool,” was used as early as the 1780s. I don’t use or see this word often. But each time, it’s spelling makes me wonder. Check out the entry to learn more about its spelling evolution.
There are plenty more ways to say No. Be sure to say Yes to the free 3-page infographic below.
I should tell you, I’ve been converted. My husband’s years of eating fish tacos in front of me has not been for naught. Our daughter-in-law made them for us a year or two ago, and I tried them. They were good, really good. You could say I’m a mark past neutral about them, which is saying something.