nesh
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /nɛʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɛʃ
Etymology 1
From Middle English nesh, nesch, nesche, from Old English hnesce, hnysce, hnæsce (“soft, tender, mild; weak, delicate; slack, negligent; effeminate, wanton”), 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 Britain 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
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xx, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:
- (now Britain dialectal) Delicate; weak; poor-spirited; susceptible to cold weather, harsh conditions etc.
- 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 4:
- And if he keeps the daughter so long at boarding-school, he'll make her as nesh as her mother was.
- 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Chapter 8:
- No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.
- 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 4:
- (now Britain dialectal) Soft; friable; crumbly.
Usage notes
- This is a fairly widespread dialect term throughout Northern England and the Midlands.
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English neschen, from Old English hnescan, hnescian (“to make soft, soften; become soft, give way, waver”), from Proto-Germanic *hnaskōną, *hnaskijaną (“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”)).