nerve

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See also: nervé

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Recorded since circa 1374 as Middle English nerve, from Medieval Latin nervus (“nerve”), from Latin nervus (“sinew”). Doublet of neuron and sinew.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

nerve (plural nerves)

  2. A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
    Hyponyms: see Thesaurus:nerve
    The nerves can be seen through the skin.
  4. (nonstandard, colloquial) A neuron.
  6. (botany) A vein in a leaf; a grain in wood.
    Some plants have ornamental value because of their contrasting nerves.
  8. Courage; boldness; audacity; gall.
    Synonyms: brashness, brazenness, balls; see also Thesaurus:courage
    He had the nerve to enter my house uninvited.
    He hasn't the nerve to tell her he likes her.
    • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
      “Oh?” she said. “So you have decided to revise my guest list for me? You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out. “Audacity,” I said, throwing her the line. “The audacity to dictate to me who I shall have in my house.” It should have been “whom”, but I let it go. “You have the –” “Crust.” “– the immortal rind,” she amended, and I had to admit it was stronger, “to tell me whom” – she got it right that time – “I may entertain at Brinkley Court and who” – wrong again – “I may not.”
    • 1965, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Positively 4th Street”:
      You got a lot of nerve / To say you are my friend / When I was down / You just stood there grinning
    • 2013 November 26, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian‎[1]:
      A trip to the whistling, fire-cracking Stadio San Paolo is always a test of nerve but Wenger's men have already outplayed the Italians once.
    • 2021 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Hungary 0-4 England”, in BBC‎[2]:
      Southgate's side kept their nerve and discipline in the unsettling, intimidating surroundings of Budapest, with the behaviour of Hungary's fans leaving much to be desired, to turn up the heat and punish their opponents ruthlessly once they had gone ahead.
  10. Patience; stamina; endurance, fortitude.
    The web-team found git-sed is really a time and nerve saver when doing mass changes on your repositories
  12. (in the plural) One's neural structures considered collectively as, and conceptually equated with, one's psyche.
    All these rationalizations for asinine behavior are getting on my nerves.
    His nerves could no longer handle the worry.
  14. (in the plural) Mental agitation caused by fear, stress or other negative emotions.
    • 1997, Harvey Danger (lyrics and music), “Flagpole Sitta”, in Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?:
      Put me in the hospital for nerves and then they had to commit me
    Ellie had a bad case of nerves before the big test; she was a bundle of nerves.
  15. (polymer technology) The elastic resistance of raw rubber or other polymers to permanent deformation during processing.
    • 1959, Newell A Perry, Eric O Ridgway, US patent US2870103 A[3]
      The nerviness (ability to recover quickly from strain or stretching) ... generally requires it to be broken down or masticated on the mill before the other compounding ingredients are added. In the break-down operation, heat is inherently generated by the sheer action of the milling or mixing equipment on the polymer. Therefore, it is difficult to maintain the desired low temperatures during the milling or mixing... An object of this invention is to reduce the inherent nerve of ... polymers ... during break-down.
  17. (obsolete) Sinew, tendon.

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from the noun nerve

Related terms[edit]

Terms etymologically related to "nerve"

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

nerve (third-person singular simple present nerves, present participle nerving, simple past and past participle nerved)

  1. (transitive) To give courage.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      The yellow-bearded Mailey, the old warrior, scarred with many combats and eager for more, stood beside his wife, the gentle squire who bore his weapons and nerved his arm.
    May their example nerve us to face the enemy.
    • 1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:
      And how I strained my ears, and nerved my hands and limbs, beginning to twitch with convulsive movements, which I feared might betray me!
  2. (transitive) To give strength; to supply energy or vigour.
    The liquor nerved up several of the men after their icy march.
    • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 289:
      The shock nerved her, and she ran aimlessly till she fell, and for a time lay, but making a barrier of her arms, that the child should not be crushed.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Sometimes used with “up”.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

encourage — see encourage
strengthen — see strengthen

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Noun[edit]

nerve f (plural nerven, diminutive nerfje n)

  1. Obsolete form of nerf.

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

nerve

  1. inflection of nerver:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

nerve

  1. inflection of nerven:
    1. first-person singular present
    2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
    3. singular imperative

Latin[edit]

Noun[edit]

nerve

  1. vocative singular of nervus

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Medieval Latin nervus, from Proto-Italic *snēuros, from Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥; thus a doublet of synwe. Forms with /f/ reflect Middle French nerf.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈnɛrvə/, /nɛrf/

Noun[edit]

nerve (plural nerves)

  1. A nerve (bundle of neurons)
  2. A tendon or sinew (band of collagen).
  3. (botany, rare) Plant fibre.

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: nerve
  • Scots: nerve

References[edit]

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron), and Latin nervus.

Noun[edit]

nerve m (definite singular nerven, indefinite plural nerver, definite plural nervene)

  1. nerve

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

“nerve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron), and Latin nervus.

Noun[edit]

nerve m (definite singular nerven, indefinite plural nervar, definite plural nervane)

  1. nerve

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

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