Whether vs Nether - What's the difference?
whether | nether |
(obsolete) Which of two.
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Matthew XXVII:
* Bible, Matthew xxi. 31
(lb)
*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Mark II:
*:whether ys it easyer to saye to the sicke of the palsey, thy synnes ar forgeven the: or to saye, aryse, take uppe thy beed and walke?
*1616 , (William Shakespeare), (King John) , I.i:
*:Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, [...] Or the reputed sonne of Cordelion?
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*:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= ; if, whether or not.
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Lower; under.
Lying beneath, or conceived as lying beneath, the Earth’s surface.
* 1873 , Mark Twain, The Gilded Age , page187:
To bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.
To constrict; straiten; confine; restrict; suppress; lay low; keep under; press in upon; vex; harass; oppress.
To pinch or stunt with cold or hunger; check in growth; shrivel; straiten.
To shrink or huddle, as with cold; be shivery; tremble.
To depreciate; disparage; undervalue.
Oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.
(mining) A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.
As a pronoun whether
is which of two.As a conjunction whether
is Introducing a direct interrogative question (often with correlative {{term|or) which indicates doubt between alternatives.}.As an adjective nether is
lower; under.As an adverb nether is
down; downward.As a verb nether is
to bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.As a noun nether is
oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.whether
English
Pronoun
(English Pronouns)- The debite answered and sayde unto them: whether of the twayne will ye that I lett loosse unto you?
- Whether of them twain did the will of his father?
Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)England 1-0 Ukraine, passage=The incident immediately revived the debate about goal-line technology, with a final decision on whether it is introduced expected to be taken in Zurich on 5 July.}}
Old soldiers?, passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless. One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished.}}
Usage notes
* There is some overlap in usage between senses 2 and 3, in that a yes-or-no interrogative content clause can list the two possibilities explicitly in a number of ways:- Do you know whether he's coming or staying?''
- ''Do you know whether he's coming or not?''
- ''Do you know whether or not he's coming?''
nether
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) nether, nethere, nithere, from (etyl) .Adjective
- The disappointed child’s nether lip quivered.
- The nether regions.
- When one thinks of the tremendous forces of the upper and the nether world which play for the mastery of the soul of a woman during the few years in which she passes from plastic girlhood to the ripe maturity of womanhood,