nisba
English
Alternative forms
- nesba, nisbah, nisbat, nisbe
Etymology
From Arabic نِسْبَة (nisba).
Noun
nisba (plural nisbas)
- An Arabic derivational adjective formed with the suffix ـِيّ m (-iyy) / ـِيَّة f (-iyya), or the equivalent construction in another Semitic language.
- The part of an Arabic name consisting in such an adjective.
- 2013, Ghazzal, Zouhair, The grammars of adjudication: The economics of judicial decision making in fin-de-siècle Ottoman Beirut and Damascus:
- Knowing the nisbas of the litigants and their representatives was the qāḍī's single most important preliminary task.
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Translations
grammar term
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See also
- -i (English suffix derived from Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy))
Anagrams
- Bains, Basin, Bians, IBANs, Ibans, Nabis, Sabin, bains, basin, nabis, naibs, nisab, sabin
Italian
Etymology
Sometimes hypothesized to be from German nichts or nix da.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈni.zba/
- Rhymes: -izba
- Hyphenation: nì‧sba
Adverb
nisba
- (colloquial, regional) nix, none
- Synonyms: nulla, niente, (colloquial, jocular) nix
- 1959, La cambiale
- - Lei testimoni li ha?
- Eh, l'avvocato! Tesimoni - nisba!
- E allora lo facciamo venire.
- A chi?
- A Nisba.
- No, dicevo "nisba". Nessuno!- - Do you have any witnesses?
- Well, a lawyer! Witnesses, nix!
- Then we'll have him come here.
- Who?
- Nix.
- No, I meant "nix", no one!
- - Do you have any witnesses?
References
- in Festschrift für Giovan Battista Pellegrini (1991, →ISBN, edited by Johannes Kramer), page 322: Als Beispiel eines Germanismus sei nisba "nichts" angeführt, das sich aus deutsch nix (da) ableitet und in Norditalien eine Entsprechung mit lomb. nies aufweist; ...
Further reading
- nisba in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana