Other forms: neutrals
Neutral means taking neither side. A neutral country stays out of the war, a neutral referee has no favourite, and you keep your voice neutral when you would rather nobody knew what you thought.
From that one idea it spreads everywhere. In colour, neutrals are the greys, beiges and creams that sit beside anything without arguing. In a car, neutral is the gear in which the engine drives nothing, so you put it in neutral and the car rolls. In chemistry a neutral solution is neither acid nor alkali, and in wiring the neutral is the wire carrying the current back. The state itself is neutrality, the verb is neutralise, and a neutral can be a person or a country that has taken no side. Neutral is not the same as indifferent: a neutral judge may care enormously and still refuse to lean.
1adjectiveneutralNot supporting either side in a disagreement or a war.
“Switzerland stayed neutral throughout the war.”
synonyms: impartial, unbiased
2adjectivecolour(of a colour) pale and plain, going with anything.
“They painted the hall a neutral grey before the viewings.”
3nounpositionThe position of a vehicle's gears in which the engine drives nothing.
“Leave it in neutral with the handbrake on.”
4adjectivechemistry(in chemistry) neither acid nor alkaline.
“The water here tests close to neutral.”
5nouncountryA person or country taking no side in a conflict.
“Only neutrals were allowed to inspect the border posts.”
From Middle French neutral, from Latin neutralis, formed on neuter, meaning neither one nor the other. The grammatical neuter gender is the same word: neither masculine nor feminine, standing off to the side.
Latin
neutrālis
Middle French
neutral
English, today
neutral
From Middle French neutral (compare modern French neutre), from Latin neutrālis. by surface analysis, neuter + -al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA