英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

nutmeg [nutmeg 词源字典]: nutmeg: [13] Etymologically, the nutmeg is the ‘musk-flavoured nut’. The word originated as a partial anglicization of Anglo-Norman *nois mugue, which came via Old French nois muguede from Vulgar Latin *nuce muscāta, literally ‘musky nut’. This ‘musky’ connection, now effectively concealed in English, is still apparent in, for example, German muskatnuss, Swedish muskotnöt, and French noix muscade.
=> musk, nut[nutmeg etymology, nutmeg origin, 英语词源]
nutriment: nutriment: see nurse
nutrition: nutrition: see nurse
nuzzle: nuzzle: see nose
nylon: nylon: [20] English has a long history of naming fabrics after their places of origin: denim from Nîmes, for instance, muslin from Mosul, and calico from Calicut in India. It is not surprising, therefore, that the popular myth has grown up that nylon took its name from New York (ny-) and London (-lon). The truth, however, is more prosaic. Du Pont, nylon’s inventors, took the element -on (as in cotton and rayon) and simply added the arbitrary syllable nyl-. The word was coined in 1938, and its plural was in use for ‘nylon stockings’ as early as 1940.
nymph: nymph: [14] Greek númphē originally meant ‘bride’ (it was related to Latin nūbere ‘take a husband’, source of English connubial and nubile). It subsequently became extended, however, to ‘beautiful young woman’ and ‘female nature spirit, particularly one frequenting water’, and it was in the latter sense that the word first entered English, via Latin nympha and Old French nimphe. The original sense ‘bride’ lies behind nymphomania, coined in the second half of the 18th century.
=> connubial, nubile
N: in nickname, newt, and British dialectal naunt, the -n- belongs to a preceding indefinite article an or possessive pronoun mine.

Other examples of this from Middle English manuscripts include a neilond ("an island," early 13c.), a narawe ("an arrow," c. 1400), a nox ("an ox," c. 1400), a noke ("an oak," early 15c.), a nappyle ("an apple," early 15c.), a negge ("an egg," 15c.). In 16c., an idiot sometimes became a nidiot, which, with still-common casual pronunciation, became nidget, which, alas, has not survived.

The process also worked in surnames, from oblique cases of Old English at "by, near," as in Nock/Nokes/Noaks from atten Oke "by the oak;" Nye from atten ye "near the lowland;" and see Nashville.

But it is more common for an English word to lose an -n- to a preceding a: apron, auger, adder, umpire, humble pie, etc. The mathematical use of n for "an indefinite number" is first recorded 1852, in to the nth power.
n.b.: abbreviation of Latin nota bene "note well."
n.g.: abbreviation of no good, attested from 1838; variant n.b.g. for no bloody good is first recorded 1903.
NAACP: abbreviation of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, first attested 1910. Organization founded Feb. 12, 1909, as National Negro Committee.
Naaman: masc. proper name, biblical name of Aramean general cured of leprosy by Elisha, from Hebrew Na'aman, literally "pleasantness," from stem of na'em "was pleasant or lovely." Compare Naomi.
nab (v.): "to catch (someone)," 1680s, probably a variant of dialectal nap "to seize, catch, lay hold of" (1670s, now surviving only in kidnap), which possibly is from Scandinavian (compare Norwegian nappe, Swedish nappa "to catch, snatch;" Danish nappe "to pinch, pull"); reinforced by Middle English napand "grasping, greedy." Related: Nabbed; nabbing. Nabbing-cull was old slang for "constable," and Farmer & Henley has "TO NAB THE STIFLES = to be hanged."
nabob (n.): 1610s, "deputy governor in Mogul Empire," Anglo-Indian, from Hindi nabab, from Arabic nuwwab, honorific plural of na'ib "viceroy, deputy," from base n-w-b "to take someone's place." Also used of Europeans who came home from India having made a fortune there, hence "very rich man" (1764).
nacelle (n.): late 15c., "small boat," from Old French nacele "little boat, bark, skiff" (12c., Modern French nacelle), from Vulgar Latin *naucella, from Late Latin navicella "a little ship," diminutive of navis "ship" (see naval). Meaning "gondola of an airship" is from 1901; extended to "cockpit of an aircraft" by 1914; later transferred to other similar housings and structures.
nacho (n.): according to "The Dallas Morning News" [Oct. 22, 1995] and other sources, named for restaurant cook Ignacio Anaya, who invented the dish in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras in 1943.
nachos (n.): see nacho.
nacre (n.): 1590s, "type of shellfish that yields mother-of-pearl," from Middle French nacre (14c.), from Italian naccaro (now nacchera), possibly from Arabic naqur "hunting horn" (from nakara "to hollow out"), in reference to the shape of the mollusk shell. Meaning "mother-of-pearl" is from 1718.
nacreous (adj.): "resembling nacre," 1807, from nacre + -ous.
nad (n.): also nads, 1980s, student slang shortening of gonad.
nada (n.): "nothing," 1933, slang, introduced by Hemingway, from Spanish nada "nothing," from Latin (res) nata "small, insignificant thing," literally "(thing) born" (see natal).