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nougat [nougat 词源字典]: nougat: see nut
[nougat etymology, nougat origin, 英语词源]
nought: nought: see not
noun: noun: [14] Etymologically, a noun is simply a ‘name’. Latin nomen ‘name’ (a relative of English name) was used by classical grammarians for a ‘noun’ – that is, a word that ‘names’ something – and English acquired it via Old French non and Anglo-Norman noun.
nourish: nourish: see nurse
novel: novel: English has acquired the word novel in several distinct instalments. First to arrive was the adjective, ‘new’ [15], which came via Old French from Latin novellus, a derivative of novus ‘new’ (to which English new is distantly related). (The Old French derived noun novelte had already reached English as novelty [14].) Next on the scene was a now obsolete noun novel ‘new thing, novelty’ [15], which went back to Latin novella, a noun use of the neuter plural of novellus.

In Italian, novellus became novello, and this was used in storia novella, literally ‘new story’, a term which denoted ‘short story’. English adopted this as a third novel [16], at first referring specifically to Italian short stories of the type written by Boccaccio, but by the mid- 17th century being extended to a longer ‘prose narrative’ (the original Italian novella was reborrowed in the early 20th century for a ‘short novel’).

English is also indebted to Latin novus for nova [19] (etymologically a ‘new star’) and novice [14].
November: November: [13] The ancient Romans calculated the beginning of their year from March. Hence they named their ninth month novembris or november mēnsis. November and novembris were derivatives of Latin novem ‘nine’.
novice: novice: see novel
now: now: [OE] Now is the English member of a widespread family of words denoting ‘present time’ that are traceable back to Indo-European *nu- or *nū- (a relative of the ancestor of new). Others include Greek nun, Latin nunc, Sanskrit nū, Czech nyní, and, among the Germanic languages, German nun and Dutch, Swedish, and Danish nu. (French maintenant ‘now’, incidentally, originally meant literally ‘holding in the hand’, and developed its present sense via ‘at hand’ and ‘soon’.)
noxious: noxious: [17] Noxious was adapted from Latin noxius ‘harmful’, a derivative of noxa ‘damage, injury’. (An earlier borrowing was obnoxious [16], from Latin obnoxius, which contains the prefix ob- ‘to’.) Related to noxa were Latin nex ‘destruction, death, slaughter’ (source of English internecine and pernicious) and nocēre ‘injure’ (source of English innocent, innocuous, and nuisance).
=> innocent, innocuous, internecine, nuisance, obnoxious, pernicious
nozzle: nozzle: see nose
nubile: nubile: [17] In modern English, nubile is generally used as a facetious synonym for ‘sexy, attractive’, but etymologically it means ‘suitable for marriage’. It comes from Latin nūbilis, a derivative of nūbere ‘take a husband’. This has also given English nuptial [15] and connubial [17], and is related to nymph.
=> connubial, nuptial, nymph
nuclear: nuclear: see nut
nucleus: nucleus: see nut
nude: nude: see naked
nuisance: nuisance: [15] Nuisance has become much less serious over the centuries. When English originally acquired it, it meant ‘harm, injury’ (‘Helpe me to weye ageyn the feend … keepe vs from his nusance’, Thomas Hoccleve, Mother of God 1410), reflecting its origins in Latin nocēre ‘injure’ (source also of English innocent and innocuous). But gradually it softened to ‘troublesomeness’, and by the early 19th century it had acquired its present-day connotations of ‘petty annoyance’.
number: number: [13] The etymological notion underlying the word number is probably ‘distribution’. Its ultimate source, Latin numerus, may have been related to Greek némein ‘deal out, distribute’ (source of English nemesis and related to nomad). Numerus passed into Old French as nombre (subsequently borrowed by German as nummer), and English acquired it via Anglo-Norman numbre. Derivatives of Latin numerus to have reached English include enumerate [17], numeral [16], numerate [20], numerical [17], and numerous [16].
=> enumerate, numerous
nun: nun: [OE] In medieval Latin, nunnus and nunna were titles of respect accorded respectively to old men and old women in general. In due course they came to be applied specifically to ‘monks’ and ‘nuns’. The masculine form has since disappeared, but the feminine nonna was borrowed into Old English as nunne. This was subsequently reinforced in the 13th century by Old French nonne.
nuptial: nuptial: see nubile
nurse: nurse: [13] The ultimate source of nurse was Latin nūtrīre (which also gave English nourish [13], nutriment [16], and nutrition [16]). This originally meant ‘suckle’ (it is related to Sanskrit snauti ‘drips, trickles’), but was later generalized to ‘feed, nourish’ and ‘look after’. Both ‘suckle’ and ‘look after’ are preserved in nurse, which comes via Old French nourice from the late Latin derivative nūtrīcia, although originally the ‘looking after’ was restricted to children: the notion of a nurse as a ‘carer for sick people’ did not emerge in English until the end of the 16th century.

The derivative nursery [16] retains its associations with children, and by extension with young plants. Late Latin nūtrītūra ‘feeding’, based on nūtrīre, gave English nurture [14].
=> nourish, nurture, nutriment, nutrition
nut: nut: [OE] Nut is a member of a restricted family of Indo-European ‘nut’-words, present only in the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages, that were derived ultimately from the Indo-European base *knu-, denoting ‘lump’. Latin nux (source of French noix, Italian noce, and Spanish nuez) came from an extended base *knuk-. Its derivative nucleus ‘nut, kernel’ has given English nucleus [18] and nuclear [19], and Vulgar Latin *nucātum is the source of English nougat [19].

The Germanic branch of the family, on the other hand, comes from an extended base *knut-, which has produced German nuss, Dutch noot, Swedish nöt, Danish nød, and English nut. The adjectival use of the plural, nuts, for ‘crazy’ dates back to the mid-19th century. It came from the metaphorical application of nut to ‘head’ – hence off one’s nut ‘deranged’, and in due course nuts.
=> nougat, nuclear, nucleus