ETYMOLOGY
from nip (to pinch, bite, squeeze tightly) + farthing
EXAMPLE
“…A goodlye dishe, who taughte the this?
why doste thou thus compare
Extremyties? Is there no shifte,
all spende, or els all spare?
I woulde the not a nipfarthinge,
nor yet a niggarde haue,
Wilte thou therefore, a drunkard be,
a dingthrifte, and a knaue?…”
From: A Medicinable Morall, that is, the two bookes of Horace his satyres
By Horace
Translated by Thomas Drant, 1566
Lexicophilia 