nihil

English

Etymology

From Latin nihil, nil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪ.hɪl/, /ˈniː(h)ɪl/, /ˈnaɪ(h)ɪl/, /-əl/
• Rhymes: -aɪəl

Noun

nihil (countable and uncountable, plural nihils)

1. (countable, law) A nihil dicit.
2. (uncountable, chiefly philosophy) nothingness, nonbeing
   • 1996, David Tibet, “The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home (Theinmostlightthirdandfinal)” (lyrics):

     I shall no longer believe all the visions of my youth:
     They have dissolved into nihil.

   • 2008, Arvydas Šliogeris, Names of Nihil, page 13:

     All tales about the beginning are apt to eliminate the nothing and make being overall. […] Without Nihil the whirlpool of the beginning settles down and becomes a stagnant puddle of pure being. Nihil disappears.

   • 2009, Walter Brueggemann, An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible, page 143:

     That is, in the sovereign act of creation, whereby YHWH orders chaos, YHWH provisionally defeated the power of the Nihil but did not destroy or eliminate the threat of chaos.

Derived terms

• nihilhood

Related terms

• nihilism
• nihil obstat

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin nihil.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

nihil

1. nothing

   Synonyms: niks, niets, noppes, nada

Related terms

• nihilisme

Descendants

• → Indonesian: nihil

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch nihil, from Latin nihil.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈnihil/ [ˈni.hɪl]
• Rhymes: -ihil
• Syllabification: ni‧hil

Adjective

nihil (comparative lebih nihil, superlative paling nihil)

1. null
2. empty

Derived terms

• dinihilkan
• kenihilan
• menihilkan
• penihilan
• ternihilkan

Related terms

• nihilisme

Further reading

• “nihil”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnihil/

Pronoun

nihil

1. (indefinite) The absence of anything; nothing.

Latin

Alternative forms

• nīl (syncopated)
• nichil (Late Latin)

Etymology

From nihilum, from ne- (“not”) +‎ hīlum (“the least bit”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈni.(ɦ)ɪɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈniː.kil]

Pronoun

nihil (indeclinable)

1. (indefinite) nothing

   Nihil est. ― It's nothing/It doesn't matter.

   Nihil sub sōle novum. ― Nothing new under the sun (proverb).

   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.8:

     Nihil agis, nihil moliris, nihil cogitas quod non ego non modo audiam sed etiam videam planeque sentiam.

     You do nothing, you plan nothing, you think of nothing which I not only do not hear, but which I do not see and know every particular of.

   1. (with quicquam/quidquam, unum)
      • c. 194 BCE, Plautus, Poenulus 3.1.1–4:

        [Agorastocles] Ita me di ament, tardo amico nihil est quicquam inaequius,
        praesertim homini amanti, qui quidquid agit properat omnia.
        Sicut ego hos duco advocatos, homines spissigradissimos,
        tardiores quam corbitae sunt in tranquillo mari.

        [Agorastocles] May gods so love me, nothing is more unfair than having a slothful friend, even more so for a man in love, who in doing anything must all expedite. So I lead them, having called them forth, the most slow-paced men of them all, slower than freight ships [corbitae] upon a quiet sea.

      • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 41.20:

        In duabus tamen magnis honestisque rebus vere regius erat animus, in urbium donis et deorum cultu. Megalopolitanis in Arcadia murum se circumdaturum urbi est pollicitus maioremque partem pecuniae dedit; Tegeae theatrum magnificum e marmore facere instituit; cyzici in prytaneo—id est penetrale urbis, ubi publice, quibus is honos datus est, vescuntur—vasa aurea mensae unius posuit. Rhodiis ut nihil unum insigne, ita omnis generis, ut quaeque usus eorum postulaverunt, dona dedit.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. nihil or nil + the enclitic particle -ne, nihilne or nilne — more emphatic in a negative sense, a stronger negative than nōn: nothing at all, not at all, none at all, not any

   Nīl·ne in mentem·st? ― Cannot you think of anything?

   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.1:

     Nihilne tē nocturnum praesidium Palātī, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populī, nihil concursus bonōrum omnium, nihil hic mūnītissimus habendī senātūs locus, nihil hōrum ōra voltūsque mōvērunt?

     Nothing at all! — you! — the nightly guard on the Palatine — nothing! — the patrols of the city — nothing! — the fear of the public — nothing! — the union of good people — nothing! — this most fortified place for holding the senate — nothing! — the faces and expressions of these [senators] — has moved [you]?
     (A somewhat literal interpretation with indications for spoken emphasis to convey the rhythmical effect of a series of rhetorical questions that exemplifies anaphora.)

Usage notes

• This pronoun can be used with a neuter nominative/accusative singular adjective (e.g. nihil bonum), or with the genitive singular of a second-declension neuter adjective (e.g. nihil bonī), but it is not used with the genitive singular of third-declension adjectives.
• In Latin, negation is expressed by a single negative word per clause (i.e., Latin does not have negative concord). If another negative word is present, such as nec (“nor, and not”) or numquam (“never”), the negative polarity pronoun quidquam / quicquam (“anything”) is used instead of nihil (“nothing”) unless the pronoun represents a second, logically distinct negation.

Declension

Indeclinable pronoun (used only in the nominative and accusative), singular only.

	singular
	neuter
nominative	nihil
genitive	—
dative	—
accusative	nihil
ablative	—
vocative	—

The senses of the genitive, dative and ablative cases are usually rendered with forms of nūllus + rēs: genitive nūllīus reī f, dative nūllī reī f, ablative nūllā rē f. The genitive nihilī and the ablative nihilō, from nihilum, are generally not used as indefinite pronouns, but are instead reserved for idiomatic uses (nihilī being used adjectivally with the sense "worth nothing", and nihilō being used in adverbial phrases like dē nihilō (“for no reason, without cause”) and nihilō minus or nihilōminus (“notwithstanding, none the less”)).

Derived terms

• adnihilō
• nihil album
• nihil debet
• nihil dicit
• nihildum
• nihilitās
• nihilōminus
• nonnihil

Related terms

• adnihilātiō
• adnihilātor

Descendants

• → Portuguese: nicles

Adverb

nihil (not comparable)

1. (not) at all, in nothing, in no respect
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.40:

     Quod non fore dicto audientes neque signa laturi dicantur, nihil se ea re commoveri: scire enim, quibuscumque exercitus dicto audiens non fuerit, aut male re gesta fortunam defuisse aut aliquo facinore comperto avaritiam esse convictam.

     That they would neither be listening to orders nor would advance during fight, he wasn't at all moved: he knew perfectly well that so had not happened, under the command of whomsoever soldiers may have refused to comply, but good luck had failed their leader, after having badly handled some situation, or by some crime comitted they had been justly accused of covetousness.

2. (rare) to no purpose, in vain; for no reason, for nothing
   • 52 BCE – 51 BCE, Cicero, De legibus Liber I.4:

     [Atticus] Quorsum tandem aut cur ista quaeris?
     [Marcvs] Nihil sane, nisi ne nimis diligenter inquiras in ea quae isto modo memoriae sint prodita.

     [Atticus] But why, why would you meditate over such things?
     [Marcus] Insooth, for no reason, if not that you won't take too close a look at them that be handed down in such a fashion.

References

• “nihil”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nihil”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "nihil", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “nihil”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • I cannot wait till..: nihil mihi longius est or videtur quam dum or quam ut
    
  • nothing is more tiresome to me than..: nihil mihi longius est quam (c. Inf.)
    
  • a wise man is in no way affected by this: hoc nihil ad sapientem pertinet
    
  • to live a life free from all misfortune: nihil calamitatis (in vita) videre
    
  • to afford no consolation: nihil habere consolationis
    
  • to considerably (in no way) further the common good: multum (nihil) ad communem utilitatem afferre
    
  • I will refuse you nothing: nihil tibi a me postulanti recusabo
    
  • not to trouble oneself about a thing: nihil omnino curare
    
  • there is nothing I am more interested in than..: nihil antiquius or prius habeo quam ut (nihil mihi antiquius or potius est, quam ut)
    
  • to live as scrupulously moral a life as ever: nihil ex pristina virtute remittere
    
  • to do no business with a man: nihil cum aliquo contrahere
    
  • not to mention..: ut non (nihil) dicam de...
    
  • but this is not to the point: sed hoc nihil (sane) ad rem
    
  • there is something in what you say; you are more or less right: aliquid (τι) dicis (opp. nihil dicis)
    

Malay

Malay numbers ^(edit)

		0	1  → [a], [b], [c], [d], [e]	10  → [a], [b], [c], [d]
Cardinal: (informal) kosong, (formal) sifar, nol, nihil

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin nihil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nihel/
• Rhymes: -hel, -el

Numeral

nihil (Jawi spelling نيهيل)

1. zero

   Synonyms: kosong, sifar, nol