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A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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WordDefinition

Naeve

A spot, blemish. Latin naevus. John Dryden in his ELEGY ON LORD HASTINGS (1649) has: So many spots, like naeves, our Venus soil; One Jewell set off with so many a foil. Also used figuratively, as by Aubrey (LIVES; 1697) : He was a tall, handsome, and bold man; but his naeve was that he was damnable proud. Hence naevous, naevose, maculate.

Nag

In addition to the old horse -- being driven into oblivion by the "tin Lizzie"' but once used as a term of abuse for a person, as when William Shakespeare in ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606 ) cries upon Yon ribaudred nagge of Egypt -- whom leprosy overtake! -- nag has the still current meaning, as a verb, to constantly scold, to keep up a dull gnawing pain. The original sense of this word was to gnaw, to strip off bark or covering; Its past participle was nakt, whence probably naked. See nake. John Taylor, The Water Poet, (WORKS; 1630) extended the equine nag to naggon: My verses are made To ride every jade, But they are forbidden Of jades to be ridden, They shall not be snaffled Nor braved nor baffled; Wert thou George with thy naggon That fought'st with the draggon, Or were you great Pompey My verse should bethump ye, If you, like a javel, Against me dare cavil.

Naiant

Swimming. Also nayaunt; via Old French noiant, present participle of noire from Latin natare, natatum, to swim; cp. natatile. Used from the 16th century, especially in heraldry.

Nake

To strip, to lay bare. First used in the14th century, 500 years after the adjective naked. See nag. Also naken, to strip. One sense of naker, q.v., is one that denudes. It occurs in Chaucer and Gavin Douglas; Tourneur in THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY (1607) cries Come, be ready; nake your swords!

Naker

A kettle-drum. From Persian naqara. Naker meant also (1) one that denudes; cp. nake. (2) nacre. The drum occurs only in the 14th and 15th centuries, as in Chaucer's THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386): pypes, trompes, nakers, and clariounes -- until revived by Walter Scott in IVANHOE (1819): A flourish of the Norman trumpets . . . mingled with the deep and hollow clang of the nakers.

Nanity

A state of abnormal deficiency. Greek nanos, stunted. Hence also nanism, the state of being dwarfed. The process of dwarfing trees is nanization. All were used in the 19th century. There is no relation with inanity, from Latin inanis, empty.

Nard

An aromatic ointment, of ancient use; also, the plant that yielded It. See spikenard. Wycllf's BIBLE (John, xii; 1382) tells that Marie took a pound of oynement spikenard, or trewe narde, precious. Poets like the word, from John Skelton (1526) : Your wordes be more swefcr than ony precyous narde to Robert Browning (PARACELSUS, 1835) : Heap cassia, sandal-buds and stripes Of labdanumy and aloeballs, Smeared with dull nard.

Nare

A nostril. Usually in the plural; from the 14th century, but mainly in 17th century verse, as In Ben Jonson's EPIGRAMS (1616) and Samuel Butler's HUDIBRAS (1616): There is a Machiavilian plot, Though every nare olfact it not.

Nath

A contraction of hath not. nathe, the nave of a wheel. nathlcss, natheless, nevertheless. (From the 9th into the 19th century.) nathemore, nevermore; never the more. nather, neither.

Navigator

A laborer working on a canal or other earthwork (18th century); shortened to navvy. When Bob, in THE TICKET-OF-LEAVE MAN (1863) wonders who will deliver his warning of the burglary plot, the drunken navigator nearby says that he will. "You?" "I, Hawkshaw, the detective." See Ticket-of-leave.

Nayless

Accepting no refusal. Josuah Sylvester in THE MAIDEN'S BLUSH (1618) said: Like a naylesse wooer, Holding his cloak, shee puls him hard unto her.

Nayword

(1) Refusal, saying nay. A late use, as in BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE of April 1898: There be no nayword from me. (2) A watchword, a password. Used into the 19th century; apparently first by (twice) in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598); see mumbudget. William Shakespeare also seems to use the word in the sense of a laughing-stock, a byword, as when Maria in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) says of Malvolio: If I do not gull him into a nayword, and make him a common recreation, do not think I have wit enough to lie straight in my bed. Some editions print this as an ayword; wherefore THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE (1777) says that nayword meaning a byword is probably a crasis [combination] of an ayeword.

Neatherder

One who herded cows

Neckverse

A verse (usually the first verse of the 51ST PSALM, in Latin) the reading of which saved one's neck. By virtue of the Biblical text "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm" any person in holy orders brought before a secular court (later, any one that could read -- being thus potentially a cleric) could plead privilege of clergy. The Bishop's commissary, always present, pronounced Legit (he reads). A branding on the hand might then be inflicted, instead of the common felon's hanging. The 51ST PSALM begins, in English: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Shipley in his GLOSSARY (1872) mentioned the deputy of the bishop . . . appointed to give malefactors their neckverses, and judge whether they read or not. An old song, reprinted in THE BRITISH APOLLO (1710) satirically ran: If a monk had been taken For stealing of bacon, For burglary, murder, or rape, If he could but rehearse (Well prompt) his neckverse, He never could fail to escape.

Necromancy

(Greek nekros, corpse; Latin nigrem, black). Divination -- foretelling events, predicting the future -- by communicating with the dead. Necromancy is also the general term for illicit divination, black magic; also nygromauncy, negromancy, nigromancy (early form), nycromancy, necromonseys.

Nectarel

Like nectar; fragrant. In TO HIS MISTRESSES (HESPERiDES, 1648) Robert Herrick says: For your breaths too, let them smell Ambrosia-like, or nectarel. Also nectareous, nectarious, nectarous, full of or like nectar; nectarean, nectarian, as Gay in his verses on WINE (1708) : Choicest nectarian juice crown'd largest bowles.

Necyomancy

Also Necyomanty. Divination -- foretelling events, predicting the future -- by calling up the devil or other damned spirits.

Needfire

Fire produced by the vigorous friction of dry wood (as when the Boy Scouts imitate the Indians). In the 15th and 16th centuries (and later) such a fire was held to possess magical properties, especially for the healing of cattle. Thus an extract from the PRESBYTERY BOOK OF STRATHBOGIE (1644) informs us that It was regraited by Mr. Robert Watsone that ther was neidfire raysed within his parochin . . . for the curing of cattell. Also, to take needfire, to start to burn spontaneously; Stewart in his translation (1535) of THE BUIK OF THE CHRONICLIS OF SCOTLAND wrote: That tyme his stalf, in presens of thame all, it tuik neidfire richt thair into his hand. Walter Scott, in THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805) , used the word to mean bonfire or beacon -- The ready page with hurried hand Awaked the needfire's slumbering brand -- and to some extent that use has persisted.

Nef

The nave of a church. French nef; Latin navem, ship. Also, an incense-holder shaped like a boat; also called (15th and 16th centuries) navet, navette; and (19th century) navicula (Latin, diminutive of navem, ship) . Also, nef, a silver or gold vessel in which napkins, saltcellar, etc., for the lord's table were kept; every officer of the household, said Maria Edgeworth In HELEN (1834), making reverential obeisance as they passed to the nef.

Nefandous

Abominable, unmentionable. Latin ne, not + fandum, what ought to be spoken, gerundive of for, fan, fatum, to speak. Nefandous was used from the 17th into the 19th century (Robert Southey) ; in the 15th and 16th centuries a shorter form was used, nefand. The printer Caxton in 1490 cried out against a grete, horribyle, nephande, and detestable cryme. Note that ineffable (cp. effable) has developed the opposite connotation, of something good beyond the power of words to express, as ineffable happiness. Unspeakable usually has unpleasant connotations; unutterable may swing with the emotions, either way.

Nemophilist

A lover of the woods (such as William Wordsworth). From Greek nemos, glade + philos, loving. [Not to be confused with Latin nemo, nobody, used as a name, Captain Nemo, by Jules Verne, and in an early comic strip.] Hence also nemophilous, nemophily. Hence nemoral, related to or frequenting groves or woods; nemorose, nemorons, woody, "shadowed and dark with trees." John Evelyn in SYLVA (1679) said that Paradise itself was but a kind of nemorous temple, a sacred grove planted by God himself.

Nenuphar

An early name for the water-lily -- still used. The word, though now applied to the white or yellow varieties, is roundabout from Sanskrit nil, blue + utpala, lotus. Elyot in THE CASTEL OF HELTH (1533) recommends syrope of violetts, nemipher, or the wine of sweet pomegranates.

Nephromancy

Divination -- foretelling events, predicting the future --using the kidneys

Neread

A sea-nymph, a mermaid. Three syllables. The more usual form of the word, especially when reference is to Roman or Greek mythology, is nereid, from nereides, children of Nereys, an ancient sea-god. Cowper in RETIREMENT (1781) speaks of Nereids or dryads, as the fashion leads, Now in the floods, now panting on the meads.

Neroly

A perfume; also the essential oil it is made from, distilled from the flowers of the bitter orange. Developed in the 17th century -- I have neroli, tuberose, jessimine, and marshal, said Shadwell in 1676 -- and named after an Italian princess.

Nescient

Ignorant. Also nescious. Latin nescire, to be ignorant; ne, not + scire, to know. Hence nescience. Used since the 17th century. Thomas Carlyle in SARTOR RESARTUS (1831) speaks of the miserable fraction of science which united mankind, in a wide universe of nescience, has acquired.

Ness

A promontory, a cape (of land). Also naes, nesse, naisse; nase; related to nose, nese. From the 12th century to the 17th, later in Scotland, nese was used for nose; in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was also used for a headland. Also nese-end, tip of the nose; neselong, face downwards (i.e., the length of the nose) ; to nese, in the 17th century -- Ben Jonson, THE SAD SHEPHERD, 1637-- to smell. BEOWULF has naess; Morris in THE EARTHLY PARADISE (1868) says: We stood Somewhat off shore to fetch about a ness.

Neuft

A variant of newt; an ewt; eft. Edmund Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) uses ewftes. What! exclaims Ben Jonson in BARTHOLOMEW FAIR (1614) , Thou'lt poyson mee with a neuft in a bottle of ale, will't thou?

Nicker

See Eche. In Charles Kingsley's HYPATIA (1853) we find: "What is a nicor, Agilmund?" "A sea-devil who eats sailors." Various other meanings have been attached to this form: a cheater; an 18th century hoodlum, who used to break London windows by throwing coppers at them; also, usually in the plural, the of marbles (preferably knickers) ; also, a person's snicker, a horse's neigh.

Nickname

See eche. As a verb, nickname also is used to mean to misname (16th through 19th century; Samuel Taylor Coleridge in BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA, 1817; George Gordon Byron, in DON JUAN, 1824; William Shakespeare in HAMLET, 1602: You lisp, and nickname God's creatures; Percy Bysshe Shelley in QUEEN MAB, 1813: The fool whom courtiers nickname monarch) or to mention by mistake or to assert wrongly, as when in Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) the King says: The virtue of your eye must break my oath and the Queen retorts: You nickname virtue: vice you should have spoke.

Niggle

(1) Cramped handwriting. Charlotte M. Yonge in THE DAISY CHAIN (1856) said that Ethel's best writing was an upright disjointed niggle . . . a still wilder combination of scramble, niggle, scratch, and crookedness. (2) To work or to move about, in a trifling or ineffective way; to be overly critical; to cheat. (3) To copulate with. A niggler is therefore (a) a lascivious person; (b) one who works ineffectively (especially in the arts), producing trifling or over-detailed or minute work.

Nightshade

See dwale. The berries of different varieties of nightshade are narcotic or poisonous. The deadly nightshade Is also called belladonna (beautiful lady); from it is extracted atropine. The juice of belladonna enlarges the pupil of the eye, enhancing its attractiveness but weakening its vision; love is blind. The word was often used figuratively, as when O. Wmslow in THE INNER LIFE (1850) dedared: Satan has ever sought to engraft the deadly nightshade of error upon the life-giving Rose of Sharon.

Nim

To take. A very common Teuton form; the root nem is related to Greek nemein, to possess. Found in English into the 17th century, in the various senses of take, including to steal, and to take off, to steal away. Gay, for example, in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, has: I expect the gentleman about this snuff-box, that Filch nimm'd two nights ago in the Park. Hence nimmer, a thief, especially a petty one; nimming, pilfering; taking bribes.

Nimfadoro

An effeminate fellow. Probably a humorous or contemptuous elongation of nymph. Ben Jonson in EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS HUMOUR (1599) queries: What brisk nimfadoro is that in the whit virgin boot there?

Ninnybroth

Coffee. A 17th and 18th century term. Ninny, a simpleton, is probably a shortening of an innocent. From it, in the 19th century, came ninnyish; ninnyism; ninnyship. From the 16th century, a thorough simpleton was a ninnyhammer; Thomas Urquhart in his translation (165S) of Francois Rabelais preferred ninnywhoop. Of a group of coffee drinkers HUDIBRAS REDIVIVUS (1705) remarked: Their wounded consciences they heal With ninnybroth.

Nipcheese

A purser of a ship. In the 18th and 19th centuries. Also, a mean, niggardly person. Used as an adjective, as when Sala In LADY CHESTERFIELD (I860) referred to this nipcheese, candle-end saving, pebble-peeling . . . principle. A pebble-peeler, of course, is a skinflint. So is a nlpcheese. So, in one sense, is a nipper, though this may also mean a boy helper; a quick lad; a pickpocket -- one that nips, in various of the verb.

Nipperkin

A small vessel for liquids, containing no more than half a pint; also, that amount of liquor. Used from the 17th century. Hardy in THE MAN HE KILLED (1914) says: Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have set us down to wet Right many a nipperkin.

Nippitate

A fine ale, or other good liquor; hence, as an adjective, of prime quality. Also with Latin or Italian endings, nippitato; nippitatum; the most frequent, nippitaty. Thomas Nashe, in SUMMER'S LAST WILL (1600) complained that never cap of nipitaty in London came near thy niggardly habitation! Thomas Urquhart in his translation (1695) of Francois Rabelais, sums up one Weltanschauung (another nearly forgotten word! The world has grown too small): 'Tis all one to me, so we have but good bub and nippitati enough.

Nis

(I) In Scandinavian folklore, a friendly goblin, which frequents barns and farmhouses. Identified with the Scotch brownie and the German kobold. (2) An early contraction of is not, also none is; cp. nys. Used from the 9th century; by Edmund Spenser; by Philip Sidney in ARCADIA (1586): Nothing can endure where order n'is. (The introduction of the apostrophe marked the dying of the form.)

Nithe

Envy, hatred. Also a verb, to envy, to hate. A common Teutonic form, used in English into the 14th century. Also to nither, to thrust down, abase, humble; oppress. (This is related to nether, lower, and is perhaps a different word; it was used until the mid-16th century, later in dialects.) Also nytherian, nidder, nether. Thus nithful, envious, malicious.

Nithing

A base coward, a most despicable wretch. A common Teuton word. By misreading of the th (Saxon thorn), the form niddering developed, the O.E.D. says in 1596; Bailey in 1751 gives the forms niderling and niding. Walter Scott, reviving the word in IVANHOE (1819) speaks of threatening to stigmatize those who staid at home as nidering.

Nix

A water-elf. See eche; nixie. Also (from German nichts, nothing) nothing, nobody. Nix! as a signal meant somebody's coming. Keeping nix, keeping watch so nobody will surprise one. Ainsworth in ROOKWOOD (1834) coined a phrase which has been copied by Hood, William Makepeace Thackeray, and more: Nix my dolly, pals, fake away. The first three words mean chuck it, never mind.

Nixie

A water-nymph. See eche. This form, a diminutive of nix, q.v., was first used by Walter Scott, in THE ANTIQUARY (1816) and in THE PIRATE (1821) : She who sits by haunted well Is subject to the nixie's spell.

Nocent

Cp. couth. Nocent was used from the 15th into the 18th century, rather rarely later. Also nocence, nocency. From Latin nocentem, harmful; nocere, to hurt, whence not only innocent but innocuous. There was no English form nocuous, but harmful was represented by nocible (15th century, Caxton), nociferous (18th century, Evelyn), and nocive, nocivous (16th and 17th centuries) T. Adams in THE FATAL BANQUET (1620) has: I would iniquity was not bolder than honesty, or that innocence might speed no worse than nocence. John Milton in PARADISE LOST (1667) speaks of Adam before the fall: Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb Fearless, unfeared, he slept.

Noctivagant

Wandering by night. The accent is on the ti, short i. Also, noctivagous. Noctivagation was prohibited and punishable by fine where there was a curfew, as in many towns into the 17th century. For a sample of its use, see expergefacient.

Noise

As a noun, in special senses: (1) rumor; especially evil report, slander, scandal. Hence, reputation. A Towneley Mystery of 1460 said: Thou has an yll noys of stelyng of shepe. Occasionally, high, repute, note, making a noise in the world. (2) An agreeable or melodious sound. Thus from Chaucer (1366) to Ben Jonson, THE ANCIENT MARINER (1798): It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon, A noise like of a hidden brook. (3) A company (of musicians). This was a frequent 16th and 17th century use; Samuel Taylor Coleridge in THE SILENT WOMAN (1609): The smell of the venison, going through the street, will invite one noyse of fidlers, or other. In Thomas Deloney's JACKE OF NEWBERIE (1597): They had not sitten long, but in comes a noise of musitians in tawny coates, who (putting off their caps) asked if they would have any musicke. The widow answered no, they were merry enough. "Tut" quoth the old man, "let us heare, good fellowes, what you can doe, and play mee The Beginning of the World" "Alas" quoth the Widow, "you had more need to hearken to the ending of the world." "Why, Widow" quoth hee, "I tell thee the beginning of the world was the begetting of children, and if you finde mee faulty in that occupation, tume mee out of thy bed for a bungler." Although it is perhaps the most popular in actual use, a noise of musicians is one of the large series of "nouns of assemblage" originally humorous or ironic in intent, such as a gaggle of gossips, a frown of critics, a prowl of proctors, a dampness of babies, a charm of fairies, a duty of husbands, a questionnaire of wives -- many of which are gathered (s.v. Sports Technicalities) in Eric Partridge's useful USAGE AND ABUSAGE. He omits a glee (or a pest) of punsters and an obsolescence of lexicographers, but includes a galaxy of milkmaids, a gush of poets, a superiority of young people -- and (modestly enough) a covey of partridges. William Wycherley in THE PLAIN DEALER (1674) protested: I cou'd as soon suffer a whole noise of flatterers at a great man's levee.

Noli-me-tangeretarian

One that stands rigidly firm, as though saying: Touch me not! Try not to move me! Walter Savage Landor in his EXAMINATION OF SHAKESPEARE (1864) declared: If a dean is not on his stilts, . . he stands on his own ground: he is a noli-me-tangeretarian. There are, also, women of the sort. Noli me tangere (Latin: Touch me not; used in the BIBLE: JOHN, 20, when the resurrected Christ appears to Mary Magdalene) has had several uses: (I) an eroding ulceration of the face; hence, an abomination. Tobias Smollett in HUMPHREY CLINKER (1771) says: She's a noli me tangere in my flesh, which I cannot bear to be touched. (2) Someone or something not to be tampered with. Whitlock In ZOOTOMIA (1654) said: Learning was no such noli me tangere, in the Apostles account (5) A picture of Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. (4) A warning against meddling or interfering; this sense may still be used.

Nolition

Unwillingness, Used in the 1 7th century as the converse of volition. Latin nolle, to be unwilling. Precisely, in A HUMBLE ENDEAVOUR . . . ABOUT THE FREE ACTIONS OF MEN (1690) Corbet pointed out that between volition and nolition there is a middle thing, viz. nonjvolition.

Noll

The top of the head; the head,, usually in good-humoured scorn; the noddle. Also nowl, noul, knoll, nole. See totty. Noll is really a double of knoll, top, summit -- applied to the head. It was used from the 9th century; later often in the phrase drunken noll; hence, by transference, a noll, a drunken fellow, a stupid fellow. By the 16th century, it was usually associated with drunkenness, as in Edmund Spenser's THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) : Then came October full of merry glee; For yet his noule was totty of the must. The word is also played upon in Garrick's impromptu epitaph for Oliver Goldsmith1: Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll.

Nonce

Occasion, purpose. The word occurs only in phrases: for the (very) nonce, for the particular (present) purpose, on purpose; hence, temporarily. In Middle English, and archaically later, often used as a metrical tag, of vague meaning, rhyming with stones and bones (banes), Thus, in a ballad of 1400: The lyon hungered for the nanes, Ful fast he ete raw fless and banes. Leigh Hunt, in a poem of 1832: A cup of good Corsican Does it at once; Or a glass of old Spanish Is neat for the nonce. The word nonce is a transfer (like a newt for an ewt, etc) from Old English for than anes, for that once. Also with the nones, on condition (that) ; in the nonce, at that moment, at once; at the very nonce, at the very moment Thus Robert Browning, in CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME (1855): Fool, to he dozing at the very nonce, After a life spent training for the sight! A nonceword, a word created for the nonce, for that particular occasion.

Noncome

A standstill. Perhaps a humorous shortening of non compos mentis, not master of one's mind; perhaps a substitute for nonplus, the state of being nonplussed, at a loss. Used by William Shakespeare in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1599): We will spare for no witte I warrant you: heere's that shall drive some of them to a noncome. The speaker is Constable Dogberry, whose command of words is distinctively dogberrial.

Nonesopretty

An article of feminine adornment, worn in the 17th and 18th centuries. By some other name, it is doubtless still being displayed. There were listed, in 1700: webb-cane and leather hooping, gartering of all sorts, nonesopretties, pins and needles, inkle and spinnel. Also a flower; see Hymen's torch.

Noria

A device for raising water from a well; the device as well as the word came via Spain from the Arabs. It consisted of a revolving rope or chain of pots or buckets that were filled below and emptied when they came to the top. Townsend in his JOURNEY THROUGH SPAIN (1792) said: Every farm has its noria. Knight in his DICTIONARY OF MECHANICS (1875) said: The true Spanish noria has earthen pitchers secured between two ropes which pass over a wheel above and are submerged below.

Nosegay

A bunch of flower. Also, a representation of this. By extension, anything pleasant, especially to sight, taste, or smell. T. Hawkins (1626) spoke of the nosegay of the elect; Jonathan Swift (1738), of a choice flower in the nosegay of wit. Oliver Goldsmith1 in THE GOOD-NATURED MAN (1768) : I have a drop in the house of as pretty raspberry as ever was tipt over tongue . . . the lost couples we had here, they said it was & perfect nosegay.

Nosism

A sense of superiority on the part of a group, Latin nos, we, is the plural of ego, 1; thus nosism is to a group what egotism is to an individual. The word nosism is also employed to name the practice of using the "editorial" we, of employing a plural for an ordinary singular. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE (1819) said that the nosism of the other luminaries of the Lake School is at times extravagant enough, and enough withal.

Nostoc

This is the form of the word as coined by Paracelsus; it appears also as nostoch, nostock; Nathan Bailey in 1751 gives nostick. It is a genus of unicellular algae, but more interestingly defined in Charlton's translation (1650) of Van Helmont's PARADOXES: nostoch understandeth the nocturnall pollution of some plethoricall and wanton star, or rather excrement blown from the nostrills of some rheumatick planet ... in consistence like a gelly, find so trembling if touched. Also called, until the 19th century, star slough, or star-shot gelly ... a substance that falls from the stars.

Notionate

Whimsical, full of notions; headstrong, obstinate. So used in the 19th century. More rarely, in the 17th, notionate was a verb meaning to come at by thinking. A notionist (from the 17th century) was one that formed notions (Lamb, in a letter; 1825: such a half-baked notionist as I am), especially odd or crotchety ideas; one that held extravagant religious opinions was a high notionist. Willem Sewel in his HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS (1720) exclaimed upon a high notionist, and rich in words.

Nous

This Greek word for intellect (nous, noos, mind) was used in English, 17th into the 19th century, for common sense, intelligence. Alexander Pope in THE DUNCIAD (1729): Thine is the genuine head of many a house, And much divinity without a nous. Also George Gordon Byron in DON JUAN (1819). A story in THE GRAPHIC of 8 November, 1884, said: I am glad that my people had the nous to show you into a room where there was a fire. In early 19th century (university) slang, the nous box was the head.

Novation

A simpler form for innovation. Novation was common in Scotland from 1560 to 1650; George Chapman in BUSSY D'AMBOIS (1607) uses the word to mean a revolution. Hence also novator, novatrix; J. B. Rose in his translation (1866) of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES said Nature the novatrix remoulds the frame. Also novaturient (17th century), desirous of novelty or change.

Novum

A game of dice in which the principal throws were nine and five. William Shakespeare mentions it in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) : Abate throw at novum, and the whole world againe Cannot pricke out five such.

Nowt

Cattle, oxen. Sometimes singular, a bullock, an ox. A common Norse term; Old English neat, an animal of the oxkind, used in English from the 8th Into the 19th century. Also nolt. Cp. tate. When William Morris, In JASON (1867) said The herdsmen drove Full oft to Cheiron woolly sheep, and neat, he did not mean neat (i.e., clean) sheep. The word is related to Old Teutonic naut-, neut-, to possess. There is, from this, an English word nait (14th to 17th century), to possess, to use, to enjoy. Cp. pestle; vendible.

Nubility

Readiness for marriage, Latin nubes, c!oud, veil; whence nubere, nuptum, to don the (marriage) veil, whence also English nuptials. Nubile means (a girl) of marriageable age; the other forms, however, have brought into English only the primary sense: nubilation, cloudiness; nubilate, to cloud over, to render obscure (also used figuratively); nubiferous, cloud-bringing, obscuring; nubilose, nubilous, cloudy, vague -- as in Thomas Love Peacock's MELINCOURT (1817): Pointing out innumerable images of singularly nubilous beauty. Many airplanes find themselves nubivagant (accent on the second syllable), journeying among clouds.

Nugacity

Triviality, trifling. Latin nugax, nugacem, trivial; nugari, nugatum, to jest, play the fool, talk nonsense. The Latin word nugae, trifles, was used in the same sense in 19th century English. Hence also nugal, nugacious, trifling; more often nugatory, nugatorious, worthless; nugament, a trifle, a trifling opinion. Myles Davies in his ATHENAE BRITANNICAE (1716) scorns the quisquilian nugaments. (Cp. quisquilious.) nugator (17th century), a trifler, a worthless fellow; nugate, to act foolishly or to talk nonsense. There may be some difficulty, remarked Henry More in REMARKS ON TWO LATE INGENIOUS DISCOURSES (1676), but there is no nugality at all.

Nuncheon

A slight refreshment of liquor, originally taken in the afternoon; then it moved ahead and became equivalent to luncheon, its own hour being given over to afternoon tea. From Middle English none, noon + shench, draught, cup. See shenk. Also nonsenches, nunchings, nuntions (usually with a final s until the 17th century); nuncion, noneshyne, nunching and nunch. Jane Austen in a letter of 1808 wrote: Immediately after the noonshine which succeeded their arrival, a party set off for Buckwell. Thomas Urquhart in his translation (1694) of Francois Rabelais, says there is no dinner like a lawyer's and no nunchion like a vintner's. A monk's nuncheon: "as much as another man eats at a large meal." Defined by Johnson (1755) as "a piece of victuals eaten between meals", nuncheon has been used also by Walter Scott (NIGEL; 1822) , Robert Browning (PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN; 1845). Luncheon was first used in 1580. Lunch (first used in 1591, translating Spanish lonja de tocino, piece of ham) meant a hunk, a piece; it may be a variant of lump (note hump and hunch). Samuel Johnson defined luncheon: "as much food as one's hand can hold". These two words replaced nuncheon for the snack between breakfast and dinner. There was for a long time no formal noon meal, though there was often an afternoon dinner, among the non-working classes, at three, and a supper about ten. The Almacks Club in 1829 declared the word luncheon unsuited to "polished society"; Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1853 objected to the detested necessity of breaking the labours of the day by luncheon.

Nuncle

A variant of uncle. Used since the 16th century; by William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605). Also nunky.

Nympholepsy

This word is forgotten less often than its meaning, as it is often used when nymphomania is intended. Nympholepsy is a state of rapture inspired in men by nymphs; hence, an urge toward something unattainable. Thomas De Quincey in his RECOLLECTION OF THE LAKES AND THE LAKE POETS (1839) said: He languished with a sort of despairing nympholepsy after intellectual pleasures. And Edward Bulwer-Lytton in GODOLPHIN (1833) said that the most common disease to genius is nympholepsy -- the saddening for a spirit that the world knows not. Hence nympholept; Bulwer-Lytton in RIENZI has: The very nympholept of freedom, yet of power -- of knowledge, yet of religion! and Birrell in OBITER DICTA (1884) : The nympholepts of truth are profoundly interesting figures in . . . history. Also nympholeptic. Thus a nymphomaniac is a woman obsessed with sex; a nympholept is a devoted and often ascetic man.

Nysot

A wanton girl. Originally a variant diminutive of nice. John Skelton in the interlude MAGNYFYCENCE (1520) has: Where I spy a nysot gay, That wyll syt ydyll all the day.
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