Etymology From Middle English nauther, from nother. Cognate with neither. By surface analysis, not + or.
1
Literary And... not (introducing a negative statement, without necessarily following one).
Nor did I stop to think, but ran.
They are happy, nor need we worry.
3 more examples
Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
And, moreover, I had made my vow to preserve my rank unknown till the crusade should be accomplished; nor did I mention it […]1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman:
The cheeks drop in; the body bows; Man dies: nor is there hope in dust: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54:
2
A function word introducing each except the first term of a series, indicating none of them is true.
I am neither hungry nor thirsty.
I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
3 more examples
But neither breath of Morn when she ascends / With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun / On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, / Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; / Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night / With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon, / Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2020, page 68:
For most people, this sacrifice is made easily and instinctively. Not so for otroverts, who are neither willing nor able to passively adopt the social scripts that others do. To the otrovert, who is constantly engaged with the choices and consequences of their individual life, social norms follow a circular logic: […]2025 June 19, Rami Kaminski, ““Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t”, in Big Think:
I love your majesty / According to my bond, nor more nor less.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
Nor you nor your house were so much as spoken of before I disbased myself.1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii:
4
Used to introduce a further negative statement.
The struggle didn't end, nor was it diminished.
I hardly spoke with nor listened to anybody else.
1 more example
I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
'I used to think, when you first come into these parts, as you were no better nor you should be.'1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter X, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
1 more example
I wouldn’t like to live here though, not after dark. Sooner you nor me.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92:
Etymology From nor. Reinterpreted as NOT + OR or negation + OR (see also NAND, formed analogically).
1
A binary operator composite of NOT OR; negation of OR function.
0 NOR 0 is 1; 1 NOR anything is 0.
The associativity of OR and AND is not at all obvious. It is tempting to assume that because OR and AND are commutative that they must be associative also. This is not the case, however, and some commutative Boolean operators are not associative. Examples include NAND and NOR.2022 August 4, William Bahn, “Boolean Algebra Laws—Delving Into Boolean Identities”, in All About Circuits:
1 more example
The output state of the NOR gate will be high (1) when all the inputs are low (0). NOR gate returns the complement result of the OR gate.2025 August 30, “Logic Gates - Definition, Types, Uses”, in GeeksforGeeks, archived from the original on 11 Sep 2025:
2
Abbreviation, Acronym Acronym of nucleolus organiser region.