neuter

But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
I would attach you all and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But since I cannot, be it known to you
I do remain as neuter.

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 3]:

This is certain, that in all our Undertakings God will be either our Friend or our Enemy. For Providence never stands neuter […]

1672, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Westminster-Abbey, on the Twenty Ninth of May, 1672. Being the Anniversary Festival appointed by Act of Parliament, for the Happy Restoration of King Charles II”, in Twelve Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions, 6th edition, volume 5, London: Jonah Bowyer, published 1727, page 271:

[A]s their firſt Security, they did all they could to foment War betwixt the neighbouring Negroes, remaining Neuter themselves, by which Means, thoſe who were overcome conſtantly fled to them for Protection, otherwiſe they must be either killed or made Slaves.

1724, Charles Johnson [pseudonym], “Of Captain Avery, and His Crew”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], →OCLC, pages 59-60:

A relay race that does not match teams but integrates the fastest and the slowest in one race against the most neuter of all adversaries — time.

1973, Nancy Frazier, Myra Sadker, Sexism in school and society:

(now uncommon) Neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.

a neuter noun

the neuter definite article

a neuter termination

the neuter gender

In The Cook and the Carpenter, Arnold used the device of a neuter pronoun "na," instead of assigning gender to the characters.

1982 April 10, Maida Tilchen, “June Arnold Dies of Cancer”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

(grammar) Having a form which is not masculine nor feminine; or having a form which is not of common gender.

a neuter verb

[…] I should never have anticipated that natural selection could have been efficient in so high a degree, had not the case of these neuter insects convinced me of the fact.

1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Instinct”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 242:

(biology) Sexless: having no or imperfectly developed sex organs.

Rich girls stayed home and got married and then "put out" occasionally, but only as their wifely duty. Prior to the sexual revolution in the 1960s southern belles were the most neuter members of the human race[.]

2000, Jan Hutson, The Chicken Ranch: The True Story of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, →ISBN, page 30:

(of an animal) Castrated; having had the reproductive organs removed.

en-adj

neuter (not generally comparable, comparative more neuter, superlative most neuter)

more neuter (comparative)
most neuter (superlative)

asnjanës

grammar: having a form which is not masculine nor feminine

intransitiv

grammar: intransitive — see also intransitive

безполов

having no generative organs, or imperfectly developed ones

Inherited from Middle English neutre, from Latin neuter, from ne (“not”) + uter (“whether”), a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros); compare English whether and neither.


neuter

(biology) An organism, either vegetable or animal, which at its maturity has no generative organs, or but imperfectly developed ones, as a plant without stamens or pistils, as the garden Hydrangea; especially, one of the imperfectly developed females of certain social insects, as of the ant and the common honeybee, which perform the labors of the community, and are called workers.

the information i acquire may help me finalize my decision to become a neuter. let me say that castration is (for me) in no way a short term goal. it's something i've heard about, thought about, and believe may benefit me personally.

1999 July 21, ipso facto, “can anyone out there tell me...”, in alt.eunuchs.questions (Usenet):

I WOULD SOONER BECOME A NEUTER
no seriously tell me where the libido-suppressing pills are

You can change yourself into a neuter, but you can't become the opposite sex.

2023 September 27, @Philosophy_the, Twitter:

(uncommon, sometimes offensive) One who has been neutered; eunuch.

Well, we've had a young (probably around a year old, but I'm guessing), intact (he's scheduled for a neuter, but it's one of those "when we get a spare minute" type of things) male Shih-tzu/shih-tzu mix come in about a month ago.

2001 March 14, Shelly, “Shih tzu questions.”, in rec.pets.dogs.behavior (Usenet):

The act of neutering (typically an animal)

But if you should beecome eyther a counterfayt Protestant, or a perverse Papist, or a colde and carelesse newter (which God forbid) the harme could not be expressed which you should do to your native Cuntrie.

1571, Arthur Golding, “Epistle Dedicatorie”, in The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries:

Friends, neuters, enemies, all are as one, to make a fool a madman is their sport […].

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection iv:

A person who takes no part in a contest; someone remaining neutral.

(grammar) A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words.

Make one do, or act (to), fare fare, fare agire, with an accusative when the verb is a neuter, and with a dative when otherwise.

1820, M. Santagnello, A Dictionary of the Peculiarities of the Italian Language, G. and W. B. Whittaker, page 185

Compound verbs other than those already spoken of whereby neuters are made active, are very rare, as I have already hinted under the head of nouns.

1847, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Essay the First; On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál Tribes, in Three Parts, J. Thomas, page 119

In all the Apachean languages, verbs are divided into two major categories, neuters and actives, each of which may be further divided into intransitives, transitives, and passives.

1971, Harry Hoijer, “Athapaskan Morphology”, in Jesse O. Sawyer, editor, Studies in American Indian Languages, University of California Press, published 1973, →ISBN, page 130:

(grammar) An intransitive verb or state-of-being verb.

neutri

biology: organism which at its maturity has no generative organs

непреходен глагол

grammar: intransitive verb — see also intransitive verb


neuter

(transitive) To remove sex organs from an animal to prevent it from having offspring; to castrate or spay, particularly as applied to domestic animals.

The neutering extends to Believe’s guest stars, with warm-and-fuzzy verses from Ludacris (“I love everything about you / You’re imperfectly perfect”), Big Sean (“I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah”), Nicki Minaj (who at least squeaks a “bitches” into her verse), and especially Drake, whose desire to hug and kiss the object of his affection on “Right Here” is reminiscent of The Red Hot Chili Peppers on Krusty’s Comeback Special.

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The Onion AV Club:

Congress neutered the bill by adding an exception for big corporations.

Here wrangling, bitty conflicts neutered change.

1974, John Boorman, Zardoz, London: Pan Books, page 51:

This collusion with the forces of corporate oppression neuters the press, Trump's critics and the Democratic Party.

2024 July 14, Chris Hedges, “My Thoughts On the Attempted Trump Assassination”, in The Chris Hedges Report:

(transitive) To drastically reduce the effectiveness of something.

At their religious services Am Tikva makes all attempts to de-genderize the liturgy by neutering English nouns and pronouns and, when Hebrew is used, by using both masculine and the feminine forms of the language.

1983 December 3, Warren Blumenfeld, “Am Tikva”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 7:

(transitive) To make grammatically neuter.

en-verb

neuter (third-person singular simple present neuters, present participle neutering, simple past and past participle neutered)

neuters (present singular third-person)
neutering (participle present)
neutered (participle past)
neutered (past)


neuter

Neutra acies laeta ex eo certamine abiit

27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita I.2

Neither army went off rejoicing from that battle

(grammar) neuter, intransitive (of a verb)

la-adj

neuter (feminine neutra, neuter neutrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er, pronominal)

neutra (feminine)
neutrum (neuter)
in -er (masculine nominative singular)
neuter (masculine nominative singular)
neutra (feminine nominative singular)
neutrum (neuter nominative singular)
neutrī (masculine nominative singular)
neutrae (feminine nominative plural)
neutra (neuter nominative plural)
neutrī̆us (feminine genitive masculine neuter singular)
neutrōrum (genitive masculine singular)
neutrārum (feminine genitive plural)
neutrōrum (genitive neuter plural)
neutrī (dative feminine masculine neuter singular)
neutrīs (dative feminine masculine neuter)
neutrum (accusative masculine singular)
neutram (accusative feminine singular)
neutrum (accusative neuter singular)
neutrōs (accusative masculine singular)
neutrās (accusative feminine plural)
neutra (accusative neuter plural)
neutrō (ablative masculine singular)
neutrā (ablative feminine singular)
neutrō (ablative neuter singular)
neutrīs (ablative feminine masculine neuter)
neuter (masculine singular vocative)
neutra (feminine singular vocative)
neutrum (neuter singular vocative)
neutrī (masculine singular vocative)
neutrae (feminine plural vocative)
neutra (neuter plural vocative)

→ Catalan: neutre

→ French: neutre

→ Friulian: neutri

→ Galician: neutro

→ Italian: neutro

→ Occitan: neutre

→ Portuguese: neutro

→ Piedmontese: nèutr

→ Romanian: neutru

→ Spanish: neutro

From ne (“not”) + uter (“either”). In the grammatical sense, a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros), from οὐδέ (oudé, “not”) + ἕτερος (héteros, “one or the other (of two)”).