Category: Word of the Day – N

Word of the Day: NOB-THATCH

ETYMOLOGY
from nob (the head) + thatch (covering)

EXAMPLE
“…Sir, I have been three months in the House of Correction, and was discharged yesterday. Mr Chesterton’s “nick” is yet fearfully visible among my hair, whence a great paucity of nob-thatch…”

From: Littell’s Living Age
Volume 11, 1846
The Complaint of a Pickpocket; John Sheppard

Word of the Day: NISEY

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin;
perhaps from nice (obsolete adj. foolish, stupid senseless)

EXAMPLE
“…Susan, I this Letter send thee,
Let not sighs and tears attend thee,
We are on the Coast of France;
Taking prizes from those Nizeys,
my sweet Jewel to advance.
Since we London have forsaken, five rich
Prizes have we taken,
Two of them Nantz Brandy Wine;
Chests of money, my sweet Honey! with
rich silks and sattin fine…”

From: The Roxburghe Ballads
Love and Loyalty:
Or, A Letter from a Young-man on Board of an English Privateer, to his beloved Susan in the City of London.
To the Tune of, Tender Hearts of London City
c1689

Word of the Day: NUMPS

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
From the OED: “Perhaps originally a pet form of the male forename Humphry, as suggested by the context in … examples.”

EXAMPLE
“…to his worthie good patron, Lustie Humfrey, according as the townsmen doo christen him, little Numps, as the Nobilitie and Courtiers do name him, and Honest Humfrey, as all his friends and acquaintance esteeme him…”

From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599

Word of the Day: NOVITIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin novitius, from novus (new)

EXAMPLE
“…I know many great and ancient families have been subject to eclipses and interruptions, which some mistaking for their primeve original, have erroneously accounted those families mean and novitious which have been truly ancient and ennobled…”

From: The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (a1650)
Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, 1845

Word of the Day: NEED-NOT

ETYMOLOGY
from need (vb.) + not

EXAMPLE
“…As if divine providence had so di∣vided it, that other lands should be at the care & cost to bear, dig out and refine, and Iudea have the honour and credit, to use, expend, yea neglect, such glittering need-nots to humane happinesse…”

From: A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof with the History of the Old and New Testament acted thereon
By Thomas Fuller, 1650

Word of the Day: NEFANDOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nefandus (wicked, impious, abominable),
from ne- (not) + fandus (‘to be spoken’), gerundive of fārī (to speak) + -ous 

EXAMPLE
“…and it was for such things that savourd of a forreign clyme, and of some soft Levantine spirit rather than of a Druinian; there was a complication of many nefandous crimes, Sodomy and rap met in him with other base libidinous acts, and those displayed and prov’d with hatefull and horrid circumstances…”

From: Δενδρολογια.
Dodona’s Grove, Or The Vocall Forest
By James Howell, 1649

Word of the Day: NOCKY

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…Was there ever less head in a brainless world?” said Johns. “Here, simple Nocky, I’ll do it.” He leapt off, and with much puffing climbed the post, striking a match when he reached the top, and moving the light along the arm, the lad standing and gazing at the spectacle…”

From: The English Illustrated Magazine
1883-1884
Interlopers at the Knap. I.