Dictionary

noncharacter en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Germanic *ne Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Germanic *ainaz Proto-Germanic *nainaz Proto-West Germanic *nain Old English nān Middle English non ▲ Old English nān Old English nān- Middle English non- English non- Ancient Greek χαράσσω (kharássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Hellenic *-tḗr Ancient Greek -τήρ (-tḗr) Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)der. Latin charactērder. Old French caracterebor. Middle English caracter English character English noncharacter From non- + character.

Meanings

1. That which is not a character (unit of text).
2. (qualifier:Unicode) That which is not a character (unit of text). ▸ One of 66 code points (the 32 code points U+FDD0–U+FDEF, plus the last two code points—U+...FFFE and U+...FFFF—of each of the 17 planes) which are guaranteed never to be assigned and are intended for process-internal use.
3. That which is not a character, as in literature.
   • Like the noncharacter at the center of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the screen's nonimage and the man it effaces enable other forms of repression, […] 2009, Marc Robinson, The American Play: 1787-2000, page 325:
4. A fictional character in a piece of literature or other media that lacks distinct personality traits, depth, or development.
   • She’s a non-character hyped up to sell merchandise. 2023 February 14, penguintruth, “Asking out of geniuine curiosity: Do you really like Mari? Why?”, in reddit.com/r/evangelion:

Forms