nesh
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /nɛʃ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛʃ
Etymology 1
From Middle English nesh, nesch, nesche, from Old English hnesċe, hnysċe, hnæsċe (“soft, tender, mild; weak, delicate; slack, negligent; effeminate, wanton”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnaskwī, from Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“soft, tender”), from Proto-Indo-European *knēs-, *kenes- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Cognate with Scots nesch, nesh (“soft, tender, yielding easily to pressure, sensitive”), Dutch nesch, nes (“wet, moist”), Gothic 𐌷𐌽𐌰𐍃𐌵𐌿𐍃 (hnasqus, “soft, tender, delicate”). Compare also nask, nasky, nasty.
Alternative forms
- nish (Newfoundland English)
Adjective
nesh (comparative nesher, superlative neshest)
- (now UK dialectal) Soft; tender; sensitive; yielding.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XX, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:
- haue ye no merueylle sayd the good man therof / for hit semeth wel god loueth yow / for men maye vnderstande a stone is hard of kynde / […] / for thou wylt not leue thy synne for no goodnes that god hath sente the / therfor thou arte more than ony stone / and neuer woldest thow be maade neysshe nor by water nor by fyre
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
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- (now UK dialectal) Delicate; weak; poor-spirited; susceptible to cold weather, harsh conditions etc.
- 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, “Chapter 4”, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, OCLC 17926498:
- And if he keeps the daughter so long at boarding-school, he'll make her as nesh as her mother was.
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], OCLC 855945:
- No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.
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- (now UK dialectal) Soft; friable; crumbly.
Usage notes
- This is a fairly widespread dialect term throughout north-central England and North Wales.
Derived terms
- neshen
- neshness
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English neschen, from Old English hnesċan, hnesċian (“to make soft, soften; become soft, give way, waver”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnaskwōn (“to make soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *knēs-, *kenes- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Cognate with Old High German nascōn ("to nibble at, parasitise, squander"; > German naschen (“to nibble, pinch”)). Doublet of nosh.
Verb
nesh (third-person singular simple present neshes, present participle neshing, simple past and past participle neshed)
- (transitive) To make soft, tender, or weak.
- (intransitive, dialectal, Northern England) To act timidly.
Anagrams
- NHEs, Shen, hens
Aromanian
Alternative forms
- nãsh, nãshi
Etymology
Plural of nes.
Pronoun
nesh m pl (masculine singular nes, feminine singular nese, feminine plural nesi)
- (third-person masculine plural pronoun) they (all male or mixed group)
Synonyms
- eyi
See also
- mini
- tini
- el, nes
- noi
- voi