だに + しないNot even, Not at all, Never could have

だに is an adverbial particle that shares a similar meaning to さえ and すら 'even', but is more commonly found in classical literature. It will be paired with negative structures and presents 'minimum' or 'light' examples to which (A) does not apply, and therefore obviously also does not apply to anything greater than (A). It will be translated as 'not even (A), so not (B)', or 'not (B) at all'.

だに will be seen following nouns or noun-phrases.

Although だに often appears when the (B) part of a sentence is negative, だに itself is not limited to being used this way. When following verbs, and the (B) phrase is not negative, だに simply means 'just'. It is best to keep this in mind, as the core meaning of this adverbial particle will always be to mark the word or phrase before it as an extremely small amount or lower limit.

Caution

だに is only used in a very limited set of expressions in modern Japanese. Some example of these are 夢(ゆめ)にだに 'even in a dream', 想像(そうぞう)するだに 'even in my imagination', 考(かんが)えるだに 'even to consider', 聞(き)くだに 'even hearing', 微動(びどう)だに 'even a quiver'.