Dinnae

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A Scots contraction meaning do not, commonly used in Scotland in everyday speech and writing for the negative form of do
2. The Scots form of do not, a dialect contraction used in Scottish speech to express a prohibition or refusal
3. A negative contraction from Scots English, equivalent to the standard phrase do not, found in Scottish dialect and literature

Etymology: "Dinnae" is a Scots contraction of "do not," built the same way as English "don't": the verb "dae" (Scots for "do") fused with the negative "no," which was reduced to "nae" in Scots. The "-nae" ending follows the pattern of "canna" (cannot), "didnae" (did not), and "wullnae" (will not), so the word is essentially a regular Scots negative form rather than a separate word with its own history. The word appears in written Scots texts, which are the main evidence for how it was spelled and used. Its spelling changes from writer to writer, and it is recorded in the Scots literary tradition much as other negative contractions are. Because it is a contraction, its history is really the history of the parts it joins.