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nuanced (adj.)[nuanced 词源字典]: 1896, past participle adjective from verb nuance (q.v.).
The new co-operative history of English literature which the University of Cambridge is now publishing prints "genre" without italics. And it even permits one contributor--and a contributor who is discussing Shakespeare!--to say that something is delicately "nuanced." Is there now an English verb "to nuance"? It is terrible to think of the bad language the scholars of the venerable English university might have used if "nuanced" had been first discovered in the text of an American author. [Scribner's Magazine," January 1911]
[nuanced etymology, nuanced origin, 英语词源]
nub (n.): "knob, lump, bump," 1590s, variant of dialectal knub, probably a variant of knob. Figurative meaning "point, gist" first recorded 1834.
nubbin (n.): "stunted ear of corn," 1690s, American English diminutive of nub. General sense of "small piece" is from 1857.
nubby (adj.): 1876, from nub + -y (2).
Nubia: ultimately from a local word, said to be related to Coptic noubti "to weave," or from Nubian nub "gold." In the fashion sense "woman's light scarf" it is from French, from Latin nubes "cloud" (see nuance).
Nubian: c. 1400 (n.), c. 1730 (adj.), from Medieval Latin Nubianus, from Nubia (see Nubia).
nubile (adj.): 1640s, "marriageable" (said of a woman), from French nubile (16c.) or directly from Latin nubilis "marriageable," from stem of nubere "take as husband" (see nuptial). In sense of "young and sexually attractive" from 1973. Related: Nubility.
nuchal (adj.): "pertaining to the spinal cord," 1835, medical Latin, from nucha "spinal cord" (c. 1400), from Medieval Latin nucha, from Arabic nukha "spinal marrow."
nuclear (adj.): 1846, "of or like the nucleus of a cell," from nucleus + -ar, probably by influence of French nucléaire. Use in atomic physics is from 1914; of weapons, from 1945. Hence nuclear physics (1933), nuclear energy (1941), nuclear war (1954). Nuclear winter coined by Richard Turco, but first attested in article by Carl Sagan in "Parade" magazine, Oct. 30, 1983. General sense of "central" is from 1912. Nuclear family, originally a sociologists' term, is first attested 1949 in "Social Structure," by American anthropologist G.P. Murdock (1897-1985). Alternative adjective nucleal is recorded from 1840.
nucleation (n.): 1861, noun of action from nucleate (v.), from Latin nucleatus, past participle of nucleare, from nucleus (see nucleus).
nucleic (adj.): 1892, in nucleic acid, translation of German Nukleinsäure (1889), from Nuklein "substance obtained from a cell nucleus" (see nucleus + -in (2)) + -ic.
nucleolus (n.): 1845, from Latin nucleolus, literally "a little nut," diminutive of nucleus (see nucleus).
nucleotide (n.): 1908, from German nucleotid (1908), from nucleo-, modern comb. form of Latin nucleus (see nucleus) + -ide, with -t- for the sake of euphony.
nucleus (n.): 1704, "kernel of a nut," 1708, "head of a comet," from Latin nucleus "kernel," from nucula "little nut," diminutive of nux (genitive nucis) "nut," from PIE *kneu- "nut" (cognates: Middle Irish cnu, Welsh cneuen, Middle Breton knoen "nut," Old Norse hnot, Old English hnutu "nut"). General sense of "central part or thing, about which others cluster" is from 1762. Use in reference to cells first recorded 1831. Modern atomic meaning is 1912, first by Ernest Rutherford, though theoretical use for "central point of an atom" is from 1844, in Faraday.
nuclide (n.): 1947, from nucleus + -ide.
nude (adj.): 1530s, a legal term, "unsupported, not formally attested," from Latin nudus "naked, bare, unclothed, stripped" (see naked). General sense of "mere, plain, simple" attested from 1550s. In reference to the human body, meaning "unclothed," it is an artistic euphemism for naked, dating from 1610s (implied in nudity) but not in common use in this sense until mid-19c.
nude (n.): "nude figure in visual art," 1708, from French nud, obsolete variant of nu "naked, nude, bare," from Latin nudus (see nude (adj.)).
nudge (v.): "to push slightly with the elbow," 1670s, perhaps from Scandinavian (compare Norwegian nugge, nyggje "to jostle, rub;" Icelandic nugga "to rub, massage"). Related: Nudged; nudging.
nudge (n.1): "complainer, nagger," 1960s, from Yiddish, from Slavic words meaning "fret, ache," realted to the root of nudnik (q.v.).
nudge (n.2): "a slight push," 1836, from nudge (v.).