nefne

• næfne, nemne

Probably cognate with Old Saxon neba, nebo, nebu (“except, unless”), Old Norse nema (“except, unless”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnef.ne/, [ˈnev.ne]

nefne

1. unless
   • 10th century, The Seafarer:

     Ne biþ him tō hearpan hyġe, ne tō hringþege, ne tō wīfe wyn, ne tō worulde hyht, ne ymbe ōwiht elles, nefne ymb ȳða ġewealc, ac ā hafað longunge sē þe on lagu fundað.

     His mind is not for a harp, nor for a gift of ring, nor for a wife’s mirth, nor for world’s hope, nor about anything else, unless about the rolling of waves, but he always has a longing, the one who rushes onto the sea.

2. except

• būtan
• nymþe

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “NEFNE”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.