neighbour
/ˈneɪbɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.69 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "My neighbour has two noisy cats."
- "They′re our neighbours across the street."
- "1660, Hugh Peters, The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters, reprinted 1807, page 10, Being at his own house in the country, when a great tempest of wind rose, he takes an occasion to visit a neighbour by him, and being somewhat merily disposed, quoth he Oh neighbour, did you not see what a wind there was the other day?"
- "Undine at length shrank back with an unrecognizing face; but her movement made her opera-glass slip to the floor, and her neighbour bent down and picked it up."
- "Neighbours enact their substantive noun when there′s a neighbour′s sickness in the night; as friends do theirs, the cindered and the green times through."
- "Of Stanford himself, an Antiguan neighbour once remarked to this newspaper: "He is either one of the world's greatest philanthropists or one of its biggest crooks.""
Etymology
From Middle English neighebour, neighbour, neyghebour, from Old English nēahġebūr (“neighbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”, literally “near-dweller”), from *nēhwaz (“close, near”) + *gabūrô (“dweller”). Equivalent to nigh (“near”) + bower (“farmer”). Cognates Cognate with Scots nebour, neebour, neibour (“neighbour”), Yola nipore, nypore (“neighbour”), North Frisian Naiber, naibüür, näiber (“neighbour”), Saterland Frisian Noaber (“neighbour”), Alemannic German Naachpuur, Nochbär (“neighbour”), Central Franconian Nohber (“neighbour”), Dutch nabuur (“neighbour”), Low German Naber, Nahwer (“neighbour”), German Nachbar (“neighbour”), Luxembourgish Noper (“neighbour”), Vilamovian nokwer, nökver, nökwer (“neighbour”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish nabo (“neighbour”), Faroese nábúgvi (“neighbour”), Icelandic nábúi (“neighbour”), Manx naboo (“neighbour”), Scottish Gaelic nàbaidh (“neighbour”), Estonian naaber (“neighbour”), Finnish naapuri (“neighbour”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English prome (“neighbour”), borrowed from Old French proeme, proime, proisme (“neighbour”) (<< Latin proximus (“nearest, next”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰuH-, neighebour, nēahġebūr, *nāhwagabūrō, *nēhwagabūrô
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈneɪbɚ/
- British English: /ˈneɪbə/
Usage
- British usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
Inflected Forms
neighbours (plural)
neighbor (alternative, US)
neighba (alternative, pronunciation spelling)
neyghbour (alternative, archaic)
naybour (alternative, obsolete)
neibor (alternative, obsolete)
neibour (alternative, obsolete)
neighbore (alternative, obsolete)
neighboure (alternative, obsolete)
neyghbor (alternative, obsolete)
neyghbore (alternative, obsolete)
neyghboure (alternative, obsolete)