Rather vs Neither - What's the difference?
rather | neither |
(obsolete) More quickly; sooner, earlier.
Used to specify a choice or preference; preferably. (Now usually followed by than )
*
(conjunctive) Used to introduce a contradiction; on the contrary.
(conjunctive) Introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely. (Now usually preceded by or .)
* 1897 , (Henry James), (What Maisie Knew) :
* 1898, J. A. Hamilton, ", Volume LIV: Stanhope–Stovin , The MacMillan Company,
* , chapter=12
, title= (degree) Somewhat, fairly.
(nonstandard, or, dialectal) To prefer; to prefer to.
* 1984 , Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man :
* 2002 , Sarah Waters, Fingersmith :
* 2002 , Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day :
* 2007 , Mikel Schaefer, Lost in Katrina , page 323:
(obsolete) Prior; earlier; former.
* Sir J. Mandeville
Not one of two; not either.
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=She was neither learned nor intelligent, but she contrived to dress both herself and her daughter out of a meagre jointure, supplying with her clever fingers what her purse could not buy;
Not either (used with nor).
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (conjunctive) similarly not
::: Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
::: But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
::: When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!" — ::* "Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all." —
In conjunctive|lang=en terms the difference between rather and neither
is that rather is (conjunctive) introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely (now usually preceded by or ) while neither is (conjunctive) similarly not.As adverbs the difference between rather and neither
is that rather is (obsolete) more quickly; sooner, earlier while neither is (conjunctive) similarly not.As a verb rather
is (nonstandard|or|dialectal) to prefer; to prefer to.As an adjective rather
is (obsolete) prior; earlier; former.As a determiner neither is
not one of two; not either.As a pronoun neither is
not either one.As a conjunction neither is
not either (used with nor).rather
English
Adverb
(-)- Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
- What the pupil already knew was indeed rather taken for granted than expressed, but it performed the useful function of transcending all textbooks and supplanting all studies.
page 60,
- His ‘Iliad’ is spirited and polished, and, though often rather a paraphrase than a translation, is always more truly poetic than most of the best translations.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.
Usage notes
* (somewhat) This is a non-descriptive qualifier'', similar to quite and fairly and somewhat. It is used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress. "''He was rather big''" can mean anything from "not small" to "huge" (meiosis with the stress on ''rather ).Synonyms
* liever, liefer, as lief * (to a certain extent) somewhat, fairly, quiteAntonyms
* (somewhat) utterlyVerb
(en verb)- Until just before the pie was popped into the heat. A few of them suddenly realized who put that gorgeous hunk of crackers together, and gaped. We grinned back, but very cool. The ones who knew said nothing, rathering to die than let on they had been hustled by two negative dudes.
- It was a plain brown dress, more or less the colour of my hair; and the walls of our kitchen being also brown, when I came downstairs again I could hardly be seen. I should have rathered a blue gown, or a violet one
- So you must excuse my saying anything I did: all it was, that up to the very last I had understood us all to be friendly — apart, that is, from his rathering me not there. How was I to know he would flash out so wicked?
- "That was a killer," said Chris. "I'd rathered' die in St. Bernard than spent one minute over there. I would have ' rathered the storm, shaking with the wind and rain hitting in the boat for an eternity than spending any time there.
Adjective
(-)- Now no man dwelleth at the rather town.
neither
English
(wikipedia neither)Determiner
(en determiner)Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)T time, passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them
Adverb
(-)- Just as you would not correct it, neither would I.
Usage notes
* Neither is used to mean none of two or more. Although some suggest that using the word neither with more than two items is incorrect, it has been commonly used to refer to more than two subjects since the 17th century. The more modern usage does prefer none with more than two things. * There is considerable variation in the number of the verb employed with this construction. :* Examples: ::* "That woman was neither a collector nor an art critic, but she understood the meaning I meant to give that work." — ::* "Has anyone ever loved you so much that they tried to kill you, or perhaps sucked you down into a hole so that you had to kill them to get away? Yeah, me neither." — ::* "You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work." — ::* "As if it were gold and could be neither good nor bad nor worth more nor worth less but must always be worth the same no matter what." — ::* "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,::: Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
::: But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
::: When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!" — ::* "Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all." —