Nonvoter

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /nɒnˈvəʊtə/

Definitions

1. An individual with the legal right to vote who opts out of participating in elections
2. A person possessing voting eligibility who consciously chooses not to engage in the electoral process
3. A person qualified to cast a ballot but who abstains from voting in elections

Etymology: A "nonvoter" is simply someone who does not vote, and the word is built from two parts that have been in English for centuries. The prefix "non-" comes from Old English "nān," meaning "not one" or "none," which traces back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root combining "ne" (not) with "óynos" (one). The second part is "voter," a person who casts a vote, borrowed from the older noun "vote" and the agent ending "-er." The compound is straightforward: attach "non-" to "voter" and you get a term for someone who abstains. Its meaning is literal rather than figurative, so the interest lies mostly in the surprisingly ancient "one" hidden in the prefix. "Non-" once carried the sense of "not one," and English still uses it that way in words like "nobody" and "none."

Synonyms: abstainer, nonparticipant, disenfranchised, noncompliant, inactive

Antonyms: voter, participant, engager, activist, contributor