英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

Neolithic [Neolithic 词源字典]: Neolithic: see lithograph
[Neolithic etymology, Neolithic origin, 英语词源]
neophyte: neophyte: [16] Neophyte is one of an evergrowing family of English words containing the prefix neo-, which comes from Greek néos ‘new’ (a relative of English new). Most of them are English formations (neoclassical [19], Neolithic [19], neologism [18], neonatal [20], neoplatonism [19], etc), but neophyte goes back to a Greek compound, neóphutos, which meant literally ‘newly planted’. Also derived from Greek néos is the name of the gas neon [19], so called in 1898 because it was ‘newly’ discovered.
=> neon, new
nephew: nephew: [13] Nephew goes back ultimately to Indo-European *nepōt-, which denoted a range of indirect male descendants, including ‘grandson’ and ‘nephew’. Among its offspring were Greek anepsiós ‘nephew’, Sanskrit nápāt ‘grandson’, Germanic *nebon (source of German neffe and Dutch neef ‘nephew’), and Latin nepōs ‘nephew, grandson’ (source of English nepotism [17], etymologically ‘favouring one’s nephews’).

This passed into Old French as neveu, from which English got nephew (replacing the related native English term neve). The corresponding Indo-European feminine form was *neptī-, which is the ultimate source of English niece.
=> nepotism, niece
nephrite: nephrite: see jade
nerd: nerd: [20] It seems likely that nerd, a term for a dull, socially inept or otherwise obnoxious person that appeared in US slang in the early 1950s, was inspired by a whimsical creature called a ‘nerd’ that was invented by the American children’s author ‘Dr Seuss’ (Theodore Seuss Geisel (1904–91)) and introduced by him in his book If I Ran the Zoo (1950): ‘And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!’ In thinking up the word he may have been influenced by Mortimer Snerd, the name of a dummy used by the American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
nerve: nerve: [16] Latin nervus meant ‘sinew, bowstring’. It and its Greek relative neuron (source of English neural) may belong to a wider family of words that includes Latin nēre ‘spin’ (a relative of English needle) and possibly also English narrow, perhaps with a common meaning element. The application to ‘bundle of fibres carrying sensory or other impulses’ seems to have begun in Greek, but was soon adopted into the Latin word, and was brought with it into English.

Metaphorically, the Romans used nervus for ‘strength, force’, an application perhaps lying behind the English sense ‘courage’, first recorded in the early 19th century. The use of the plural nerves for ‘agitation, apprehension’ (and of the adjective nervous [14] for ‘apprehensive’) is an English development, which probably started in the mid- 18th century.
=> needle, neural
ness: ness: see nose
nest: nest: [OE] Etymologically, a nest is a place for ‘sitting down’. It is a very ancient word, and traces its history all the way back to Indo- European *nizdo-, a compound formed from *ni ‘down’ (source of English beneath and nether) and *sed- (ancestor of English sit). From it came English nest (a word shared by German and Dutch), and also Latin nīdus ‘nest’, source of Old French niche ‘nest’ – whence English niche [17]. Nestle [OE] was derived from nest.
=> beneath, nestle, nether, sit
net: net: English has two distinct words net. The commoner and more ancient, ‘mesh’ [OE], is a widespread Germanic word: German has the related netz, Dutch and Danish net, and Swedish nät. Its ultimate origins are not known, although a link with Latin nassa ‘wicker basket for catching fish’ has been suggested. Net ‘without deductions’ [14] comes from French net, which was borrowed into English again two centuries later as neat.

It was originally used, like its French source, for ‘trim, clean’, but this developed via ‘unadulterated, unmixed’ to, by the early 16th century, ‘free from any (further) deduction’. The alternative spelling nett dates from the 16th century.
=> neat
nether: nether: see beneath
neural: neural: [19] Neural is one of a wide range of words for which English is indebted to Greek neuron ‘nerve’ (a relative of Latin nervus, from which English gets nerve). Others include neuralgia [19] (etymologically ‘nerve-pain’), neurology [17], neurosis [18], and neurotic [17].
=> nerve
neuter: neuter: [14] From a formal point of view, Latin neuter is virtually identical to English neither. Both originated as compounds formed from a negative particle and an element meaning ‘which of two’. In the case of neuter these were ne and uter, which in combination denoted etymologically ‘neither one thing nor the other’. The specialized application to grammatical gender soon emerged, and it was in this sense that neuter was first adopted into English. The derivative neutral [16] goes back to Latin neutrālis.
new: new: [OE] New goes back a long way – to Indo- European *newos, in fact. This also produced Greek néos ‘new’ (source of English neophyte and a range of other neo- compounds), Latin novus ‘new’ (ancestor of French nouveau, Italian nuovo, and Spanish nuevo, and source of English novel, novice, etc), Welsh newydd ‘new’, Lithuanian naujas ‘new’, and Russian novyj. Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *neujaz, which has fanned out into German neu, Dutch nieuw, Swedish and Danish ny, and English new. The use of the plural noun news for ‘information’ dates from the 15th century.
=> neon, novel, novice
newel: newel: see noose
newfangled: newfangled: see fang
newt: newt: see nickname
next: next: [OE] Etymologically, something that is next is ‘nearest’. The word comes, like its Germanic relatives, German nächste, Dutch naaste, Swedish näst, and Danish næst, from a prehistoric ancestor formed from *nēkh- ‘near’ (from which English nigh is descended) and the superlative suffix *-istaz. A parallel comparative formation has given English near.
=> near, nigh
nexus: nexus: see connect
nice: nice: [13] Nice is one of the more celebrated examples in English of a word changing its meaning out of all recognition over the centuries – in this case, from ‘stupid’ to ‘pleasant’. Its ultimate source was Latin nescius ‘ignorant’, a compound adjective formed from the negative particle ne- and the base of the verb scīre ‘know’ (source of English science).

This passed into English via Old French nice with minimal change of meaning, but from then on a slow but sure semantic transformation took place, from ‘foolish’ via ‘shy’, ‘fastidious’, and ‘refined’ to on the one hand ‘minutely accurate or discriminating’ (as in a ‘nice distinction’) and on the other ‘pleasant, agreeable’ (first recorded in the second half of the 18th century).
=> science
niche: niche: see nest