 Woolman believed that "N ohne Radikal" was a German mnemonic and likely a backronym, rather than the real meaning of the prefix "nor".This can be argued with the fact ""that the prefix nor is used for many compounds which contain no nitrogen at all"".Originally, "nor" had an ambiguous meaning, as the term "normal" could also refer to the unbranched form in a series of isomers, for example as with alkanes, alkanols and some amino acids.