英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

natty [natty 词源字典]: natty: see neat
[natty etymology, natty origin, 英语词源]
nature: nature: [13] Etymologically, someone’s nature is the qualities they were ‘born’ with. The word comes via Old French nature from Latin nātūra, a derivative of the verb nāscī ‘be born’ (source of English nation, native, etc). This originally meant simply ‘birth’, but by classical times it had developed to the ‘innate properties or qualities of something or someone’, and hence to the ‘inherent course of things’, the ‘way things are in the world’. The common English sense ‘physical world’ (as in nature study) first began to emerge in the 16th century.
=> native
navy: navy: [14] Latin nāvis ‘ship’ is the ultimate source of navy. In post-classical times it spawned an offspring nāvia ‘fleet’, which passed into English via Old French navie. Other Latin derivatives of nāvis were nāvālis, source of English naval [16], and the verb nāvigāre ‘manage a ship’, from which English gets navigate [16] (navvy [19] originated as a colloquial abbreviation for navigator, a term applied to someone who dug ‘navigation canals’).

In medieval Latin nāvis was applied to the central part of a church, from the passing resemblance in shape to a ship, and the word was anglicized as nave [17]. Nāvis was related to Greek naus ‘ship’, whose contributions to English include nautical [16], nautilus [17], nausea [16] (etymologically ‘seasickness’), and, somewhat surprisingly, noise.
=> nausea, nautical, navigate, noise
nay: nay: see no
near: near: [12] Historically, near is a comparative form, and its ancestor originally meant ‘nearer’. It was borrowed from Old Norse náer, the comparative of ná- ‘near’, which came from the same prehistoric Germanic source as produced English nigh [OE] and next (not to mention German nah ‘near’). By the time it reached English it had lost its comparative force, and simply meant ‘close’ (which is also the sense of its modern Scandinavian descendants, Swedish nära and Danish nær).
=> neighbour, next, nigh
neat: neat: English has two words neat. The older is now virtually obsolete, while the commoner is a comparatively recent introduction. Neat ‘tidy’ [16] was borrowed from French net ‘neat, clean’. This goes back to Latin nitidus ‘elegant, shiny’, a derivative of the verb nītēre ‘shine’. English originally acquired the word in the 14th century as net ‘clean, tidy’ (from which the modern net ‘with deductions’ developed).

This had a 16thcentury derivative netty, which may be the source of modern English natty [18]. Neat ‘cow, ox’ [OE] is now encountered only in gastronomic contexts, such as ‘neat’s foot jelly’, and even then is an archaism. It goes back to prehistoric Germanic *nautam, a derivative of a base meaning ‘use’, and hence reflects (like cattle itself) the original notion of cattle as ‘useful property’.
=> natty, net
nebula: nebula: [17] As its form suggests, nebula was originally a Latin word, but it goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European base (*nebh- ‘cloud’) which produced a wide range of other descendants, including German nebel ‘cloud’, Greek néphos ‘cloud’, and Latvian debess ‘sky’. It also got into Old English, as nifol ‘dark’. The Latin word was originally used in English for a sort of ‘cataract’ over the eye, and the presentday astronomical application to a ‘cloud’ of stars did not emerge until the early 18th century. The derivative nebulous [16] is an earlier borrowing.
necessary: necessary: [14] The original Latin adjective meaning ‘necessary’ was necesse (it was formed with the negative particle ne- from the stem of cēdere ‘yield’, source of English cede, and hence meant etymologically ‘unyielding’). This was subsequently extended to necessārius, and English acquired it via Anglo-Norman *necessarie.
=> cede, concede, proceed
neck: neck: [OE] Neck originally meant only the ‘back or nape of the neck’ (that is what its modern German relative nacken denotes, and in Old English times the usual word for ‘neck’ in general was heals). It seems to go back to a prehistoric Indo-European base *knoksignifying ‘high point, ridge’, which also produced Irish cnoc ‘hill’. The use of the verb neck for ‘kiss and cuddle’ dates back at least to the early 19th century.
necromancy: necromancy: [13] Greek nekrós meant ‘corpse’ (it has given English necrophilia [19], necropolis ‘cemetery’ [19], and necrosis ‘death of tissue’ [17] as well as necromancy, and goes back to a base *nek- ‘kill’ which also produced Latin nex ‘killing’, source of English internecine and pernicious, and possibly Greek néktar, source of English nectar).

Addition of manteíā ‘divination’, a derivative of mántis ‘prophet, diviner’ (from which English gets the insectname mantis [17], an allusion to its raised front legs, which give it an appearance of praying), produced nekromanteíā ‘foretelling the future by talking to the dead’, which passed into late Latin as necromantīa. By the Middle Ages the application of the term had broadened out to ‘black magic’ in general, and this led to an association of the first element of the word with Latin niger ‘black’.

Hence when it first arrived in English it was in the form nigromancy, and the restoration of the original necro- did not happen until the 16th century.
=> internecine, mantis, pernicious
nectar: nectar: [16] Nectar was originally the drink of the Greek gods, but soon after the word’s arrival in English it was being used metaphorically for any ‘delicious drink’. It comes via Latin nectar from Greek néktar, and it has been speculated that this may have been derived from the base *nek- ‘kill’ (source also of English necromancy), as some sort of allusion to the ‘immortality’ of the gods. Nectarine [17], the name of a sort of peach based on the now disused adjective nectarine ‘like nectar’, was probably inspired by German nektarpfirsich ‘nectar-peach’.
need: need: [OE] Need is a widespread Germanic noun, with relatives also in German not, Dutch nood, Swedish nöd, and Danish nød. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *nauthiz, whose non- Germanic relatives, such as Old Prussian nautin ‘necessity, distress’ and Czech nyti ‘languish’, reveal its darker past, in which the accent was on ‘distress’ and ‘straitened circumstances’ rather than just the desirability of having something (these connotations survive in German not, which means ‘misery, danger, emergency’ as well as ‘need’).
needle: needle: [OE] Etymologically, a needle is a ‘sewing’ implement. The word comes from a prehistoric Germanic *nēthlō (source also of German nadel, Dutch naald, Swedish nål, and Danish naal), which was derived from an Indo- European base *nē- ‘sew’ (represented also in English nerve and neural).
=> nerve, neural
nefarious: nefarious: [16] Latin nefās ‘sin’ denoted etymologically something that was contrary to the divine law. It was a compound noun formed from the negative particle ne- and fās ‘divine law, dictates of religion’. From it was derived the adjective nefārius, source of English nefarious.
negative: negative: see renegade
negotiate: negotiate: [16] The etymological notion underlying negotiate is of ‘not being at leisure’, and hence of ‘being busy’. The word comes ultimately from Latin negōtium ‘business’, which was a compound formed from the negative particle neg and ōtium ‘leisure’ (source of English otiose [18]). From it was derived the verb negōtiārī ‘do business’, which passed into English as negotiate.

There is some early evidence in the derivatives negotiation and negotiator that the original Latin sense of the word survived into English, but in the verb itself it had already developed via ‘transact business’ and ‘hold business discussions’ to ‘hold discussions’ generally.
=> otiose
negro: negro: see denigrate
neighbour: neighbour: [OE] Etymologically, your neighbour is simply someone who ‘lives near’ you. It is a compound formed in the Old English period from nēah (ancestor of modern English nigh) and gebūr ‘dweller’ (a descendant of the prolific Germanic base *bū- ‘dwell’, which also produced English be, booth, bower, build, etc). Parallel formations in other Germanic languages include German nachbar and Swedish and Danish nabo. The derivative neighbourhood dates from the 15th century, but was not used in its main modern sense ‘district’ until the late 17th century.
=> be, booth, bower, build, burly, byre, husband, near
neither: neither: [13] Despite the two words’ similarity, neither is not just either with a negative prefix tacked on. It comes ultimately from Old English nāhwæther ‘neither’, a compound formed from nā ‘not’ (which survives as no in modern English ‘whether or no’) and hwæther ‘which of two’ (ancestor of modern English whether). In the late Old English period it was contracted to nawther, and in Middle English, under the influence of either, this became transformed into neither.
=> whether
nemesis: nemesis: see nomad