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, næsċe (“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)

1. (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 quotation)

2. (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:

     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:

     No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi' thy nesh sides.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN:

     "I wouldn't have locked up Noakes and stolen a car if I'd known you couldn't pick the lock!"
     "Aye, exactly, you're nesh, so you needed encouragement."

3. (now UK dialectal) Soft; friable; crumbly.

Usage notes

• This is a fairly widespread dialect term throughout Northern England, Northern and Eastern parts of the English Midlands and North Wales, although it may elude some speakers. The semantic range can also be rather wide, even sometimes used positively for pleasingly soft things.

Derived terms

• neshen
• neshly
• neshness

Translations

delicate, weak, poor-spirited, susc. to cold

• Catalan: fredolic (ca)
• French: frileux (fr)
• German: kälteempfindlich (de)
• Polish: wydygany, cherlawy (pl)
• Portuguese: friorento (pt)
• Romanian: friguros (ro)
• Russian: не́жный (ru) (néžnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: dis
• Spanish: friolento (es), friolero (es)

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)

1. (transitive) To make soft, tender, or weak.
2. (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)

1. (third-person masculine plural pronoun) they (all male or mixed group)

Synonyms

• eyi

See also

• mini
• tini
• el, nes
• noi
• voi