"N" Word Origins

novocentenary

Origin

From novo- + centenary

novomoskovsk

Origin

Derived from Ukrainian Новомоско́вськ (Novomoskóvsʹk), or from Russian Новомоско́вск (Novomoskóvsk)

Novotny

Origin

From Czech Novotný.

novum

Origin

Borrowed from Latin novum.

now

Old English

From Old English nū, going back to the Proto-Indo-European root for "now" — one of the oldest words in the language, found in nearly identical form across many Indo-European languages.

nowadays

Middle English

From Middle English, literally "now" + "adays" (meaning "in these days").

nowhere

Old English

From Old English nōhwǣr, a fusion of "no" and "where."

nowt

Origin

A dialectal pronunciation of "naught."

nox

Latin

From Latin nox, "night" — the chemical sense (NOx) is unrelated and comes from combining "nitrogen" and "oxide."

noxious

Latin

From Latin noxius, "hurtful," from noxa, "harm."

Nozomi

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese のぞみ (Nozomi).

nozzle

Origin

From "nose" + the diminutive suffix "-le" — essentially "a little nose."

np

English

An initialism of "no problem"; separately, of "now playing" and, in complexity theory, of "nondeterministic polynomial time".

NPO

Latin

In the medical sense, an initialism of Latin nil per os, 'nothing through the mouth'.

NSFW

English

An initialism of "not safe for work," which arose in online forums and email as a courtesy warning before opening a link.

NTM

English

An initialism; the slang sense abbreviates nothing much.

nu

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek nu, the name of the letter.

nuala

Origin

From Irish: either a shortened form of Fionnuala, alternative form of Fionnghuala, or an alternative form of Úna.

nuance

Latin

Borrowed from French nuance, "shade" or "hue," ultimately traced back to Latin nubes, "cloud."

nuanced

Origin

From nuance + -ed.

nub

German

Related to Low German words for "knot" or "lump," and to the English word "knob."

nubbin

Origin

Perhaps nub + -in.

nubble

Origin

Compare Low German nubben (“to knock, cuff”).

Nubia

Origin

A geographical name of disputed origin, possibly linked to the Noba, a people once living in the region.

Nubian

Origin

From "Nubia" + the suffix "-an."

nubile

Origin

From French nubile, from Latin nūbilis (“marriageable”), from nūbō (“marry, to take as husband”), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”). Possibly cognate with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, young wife, nymph”) (English nymph), but this is disputed.

nucca

Origin

Modification of nigga.

nucha

Origin

From Middle English nucha, nuche, nuca, nuka, nuke (“spinal cord”), borrowed from Medieval Latin nucha (“spinal cord; nape of the neck”). Doublet of nuque.

nuchal

Origin

Borrowed from Medieval Latin nuchālis, from nucha + -ālis, from Arabic نُخَاع (nuḵāʕ, “spinal cord”).

nuclear

Latin

From "nucleus" + "-ar," ultimately from Latin nucleus, "kernel" — the tiny dense core at the centre of an atom.

nuclear family

Latin

From nuclear in its original sense of "forming a nucleus or core", from Latin nucleus "kernel" — the core unit of kin. It has nothing to do with nuclear energy, which draws on the same root by way of the atomic nucleus.

nucleus

Latin

A learned borrowing from Latin nucleus, "kernel" or "core."

nude

Latin · 1490

Entered English in the 1490s as a legal term meaning "unsupported" or "not formally attested," from Latin nudus, "naked, bare."

nudge

Norwegian · 1600

Dates from around the 17th century, likely related to Scandinavian words for "push" or "rub," such as Norwegian nugge.

nudie

Origin

Simply "nude" plus the informal "-ie" ending, the same pattern as "movie" from "moving picture."

nudism

Origin

From French nudisme. By surface analysis, nude + -ism.

nudist

Origin

From "nude" + the suffix "-ist."

nudity

Late Latin

From "nude" + "-ity," echoing Late Latin nuditas.

nudiustertian

Origin

From Latin nū̆diū̆stertiānus (“taking place the day before yesterday”), from nudius tertius. Coined by Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652) in The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (1647).

nudnik

Origin

From Yiddish נודניק (nudnik), from the root of נודיען (nudyen, “to bore”) + ־ניק (-nik, noun-forming suffix) (English -nik), both of Slavic origin. The root derives from Proto-Slavic *nùditi (“to compel”) and the noun *nùďa (“need, necessity”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *new- or *neh₂w- (“to lack, need; to perish”). The suffix is from Proto-Slavic *-ьnikъ (forming agent nouns and objects). Compare Russian ну́дный (núdnyj, “tedious”), Ukrainian нудни́й (nudnýj, “boring”), Polish nudny (“boring”), Slovak nudný (“boring”), Old Church Slavonic ноудити (nuditi) or нѫдити (nǫditi, “to compel”), Hebrew נוּדְנִיק (“nag”). See also English need, and compare needy for the semantics.

nuel

Origin

From Middle English newel, niwel (“right down”, adverb), from Old English nēol, nȳwol, nēowol, neowol, niwol, nihol (“precipitous, headlong, prone, prostrate, obscure, deep down, low, profound, abysmal”), of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant of nifol (“dark, gloomy, obscure”), from Proto-West Germanic *nebul, from Proto-Germanic *nibulaz, *nebulaz (“mist, fog”), from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰelos, from *nébʰos (“cloud, mist, moisture”); or more likely, from Proto-Germanic *nīhwulaz (“descending; low”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneygʷʰ- (“to tend; incline; lean toward; bend”), from *ken- (“to press; pinch; kink”). If derived from *nibulaz, then cognate with Dutch nevel (“mist, fog, haze”), German Nebel (“fog, mist, haze, nebula”), Icelandic nifl (“fog, darkness”), Icelandic njól (“mist, night, darkness”), Latin nebula (“fog, cloud, vapour”), Ancient Greek νέφος (néphos, “cloud”). If derived from *nīhwulaz, then cognate Old Frisian niwul, Middle Low German nīgel, nugel, nule, nūl (“forwards; forward over”), Middle Dutch niel (“thrown forward on the ground; prostrate”) (Dutch nuul-, vernielen).

Nugent

Origin

From the Norman habitational surname referring to places in France called Nogent.

nugget

Origin · 1800

Origin uncertain, first recorded for lumps of ore in 19th-century Australia and possibly linked to an English dialect word "nug", meaning a lump or block.

nuh

Middle English

From Middle English na, from Old English nā.

nuisance

Latin

From Old French nuisance, "harm", ultimately from Latin nocere, "to hurt" — the same root that gives us "innocent" and "noxious".

nuke

Origin

A shortening of "nuclear weapon"; the verb developed later from the noun.

null

Latin

Borrowed from Middle French nul, from Latin nullus, "none at all".

nullification

Origin

Borrowed from Late Latin nullificatio, from nullifico, equivalent to null + -ification.