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nonsmoker

nonsmoker

8 1.9
A person who does not smoke cigarettes
  • noun
  • /ˈnɒnˌsmoʊkər/
translation icon : no fumador
  • Only recently has the public begun to grasp that smoking also harms nonsmokers.
  • smokers and nonsmokers
  • nonsmoker claims
  • Nonsmokers Rights

Examples

  • Infants of smoking parents are hospitalized for respiratory infections more frequently than children of nonsmokers.

    Academic text (1992)
  • I prefer a nonsmoker.

  • I thought you were a nonsmoker.

  • Professor Gold: I like to smoke as much as anyone, but the nonsmokers have a legitimate complaint.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • If you're a nonsmoker, you'll know.

  • The real reason is that nonsmokers dislike the smell of smoke.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Someone's either a smoker or a nonsmoker.

  • A world where smokers and nonsmokers live together in perfect harmony.

  • Much attention has recently been focused on the rapidly increasing incidence of primary lung cancer in nonsmokers.

    Academic text (2007)
  • As a lifelong nonsmoker, she found it difficult to understand why anyone would choose to start smoking.

Antonyms

178 1.3

A person who regularly uses tobacco, for example cigarettes

How Involved

tobacconist
  • UK
1 6.5
chain-smoker
3 3.5
coker
  • Slang
1 9.9
nonsmoker
8 1.9

Surface Forms

nonsmoker singular
nonsmokers plural

Morphology

nonsmoker = smoker (transparent) = non + smoke + er

The productive prefix 'non-' attaches to the agent noun 'smoker' to yield 'not a smoker', a directly interpretable negation.

Etymology

Nonsmoker is made of non- meaning 'not' and smoker meaning 'someone who smokes'. So a nonsmoker is simply a person who is 'not' a smoker, and you can remember non- from words like nonstop to mean 'not'.