Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/274

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two words were kept separate, ni aiw, ‘never.’ With regard to the negative ni see nicht; and for OHG. io, Goth. aiw, Comp. je.

nied, prep., ‘below,’ from MidHG. nide, ‘under, below,’ OHG. nida, prep., ‘under, beneath’; allied to nieder.

nieden (in hienieden), adv., ‘below, beneath,’ from MidHG. niden, nidene, OHG. nidana, adv.,‘below’; comp. OSax. nithana, AS. neoþan (from AS. beneoþan is derived E. beneath); allied to nieder.

nieder, adv., from the equiv. MidHG. nider, OHG. nidar, adv., ‘down, downward’; corresponding to OSax. nithar, Du. neder, AS. niþer, E. nether, OIc. niðr; Goth. *niþar, is by chance not recorded. A derivative of the Aryan verbal particle ni, ‘down’ (see Nest), which is preserved in other Teut. forms (see nied and nieden); comp. OSlov. nizŭ, ‘below,’ as well as Sans. ni, ‘down,’ and Sans. nitarâm, which is closely allied to the Teut. adv. — nieder, as an adj., ‘nether, lower, base,’ has been recently formed from the adv. OHG. nidari, MidHG. nider, nidere, adj., ‘nether, low’; akin to OSax. nithiri.

niedlich, adj., ‘pleasant, pretty, nice,’ from MidHG. *nietich, of which only the adv. nietlîche, ‘zealously, diligently,’ is recorded; late OHG. nietsam, ‘desiderabilis, desirable, pleasant’; comp. OSax. niudsam, ‘pleasant.’ The cognates are connected with OHG. niot, m., ‘lively longing, zealous endeavour,’ OSax. niud, AS. neód, ‘zeal, longing.’

Niednagel, Neidnagel, m., see Niet.

niemals, see nie and mal.

niemand, pron. with an excrescent final d (as in Mond), from nie and man, ‘nobody’; comp. MidHG. nieman, niemen, OHG. nioman, ‘nobody’; see nie and jemand.

Niere, f., ‘kidney,’ from the equiv. MidHG. nier, niere, OHG. nioro, m. (OHG. also ‘testicle’); corresponding to Du. nier, f., MidE. and MidLG. nêre (to which are allied E. kidney, MidE. kidenêre, from AS. *cȳ̆dneóre, *cȳ̆dneóra?, ‘kidney’; in Scand. nýra, ‘kidney,’ with i- mutation. If the latter indicates Goth. *niuzô, n., the Teut. class has no further cognates; but if we are to assume Goth. *niurô, niurjô, corresponding forms may be found in the other Aryan languages, which have numerous terms for parts of the body in common with Teut.; Goth. *niurô for *niwrô, *negwrô, from Pre-Teut. *neghrôn, which is represented in

Gr. by an equiv. γεφρός, ‘kidney, testicle’ (φ for gh); akin further to Lat. nefrones. With regard to Goth. *niu- for *niw-, *nigw-, see Au.

niesen, vb., ‘to sneeze,’ from the equiv. MidHG. niesen, OHG. niosan, str. vb.; corresponding to Du. niezen, OIc. hnjósa (to which hnore, m., ‘sneezing,’ is allied), MidE. nêsin; also AS. fneôsan, MidE. fnêsen, equiv. to Du. fniezen, ‘to sneeze.’ The two Teut. roots hnus and fnus seem to have been orig. identical; with these are connected MidE. snêsen, E. to sneeze. The pre-Teut. root qnus, ksnus, may be onomatopoetic.

Nieswurz, m., ‘hellebore,’ from the equiv. MidHG. nieswurz, f.; akin to the preceding word. The name is due to the fact that the pulverised root has been used from the earliest times to produce sneezing.

Nießbrauch, m., ‘usufruct,’ allied to nießen; see genießen.

Niet, n., from the equiv. MidHG. niet, m. and f., ‘bolt’; OHG. *hniot is not recorded with this sense. The word is connected with OHG. hniotan, ‘to fasten,’ OIc. hnjóða, vb., ‘to strike, hammer, fix firmly’; the Teut. root hnud, pre-Teut. knut, has not yet been found in other languages.

Niete, f., ‘blank (in a lottery)’; “adopted in the first half of the 18th cent. after the introduction of lotteries in the Du. fashion, from the equiv. Du. niet, m. and n., ‘nothing, nought,’ the gender of which was changed to fem.; the Du. word exactly corresponded orig. to ModHG. nichts, nicht.” See the latter words.

Niftel, f., see Nichte.

nimmer, adv., ‘never, never again,’ from MidHG. niemer, nimmer, nimer (from nie mêr), ‘never (of present and future actions)’; comp. ModHG. nimmer in the sense of ‘no more, never again,’ for which nimmermehr is used in preference. From MidHG. niemêr, nimmêr, ‘never more.’ Both forms are derivatives of OHG. nio and mêr (like AS. nœ̂fre, E. never, from *nâmire); nimmermehr contains the second component twice. See nicht and nie.

nippen, vb., ModHG. only, from LG. and Du. nippen, ‘to sip’; in Henneb. and Bav. nepfen, nöpfen, with the HG. pf. Comp. further AS. nipele, E. nipple?.

Nippsache, f., ‘toy, trinket,’ ModHG. only, formed from Fr. nippe.