nikt

See also: nīkt

Old Polish

Etymology

Clipping of Proto-Slavic *nikъto. By surface analysis, ni- +‎ kto. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /ni(ː)kt/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /nikt/

Pronoun

nikt m

1. no one, nobody

   Synonym: żaden

Declension

Declension of nikt

	singular
nominative	nikt
genitive	nikogo
dative	nikomu
accusative	nikogo
instrumental	nikim
locative	nikim

Descendants

• Masurian: nicht
• Polish: nikt
• Silesian: nikt

References

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “nikt”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
• Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000) “nikt”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “nikt”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Polish

Alternative forms

• nicht, niekto (Middle Polish)
• nikto (dialectal)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish nikt. By surface analysis, ni- +‎ kto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɲikt/
• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /ˈɲikt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ikt
• Syllabification: nikt

Pronoun

nikt m pers

1. no one, nobody

Noun

nikt m pers

1. (colloquial) no one, nobody (someone of little importance or note)

Declension

Declension of nikt

	singular
nominative	nikt
genitive	nikogo
dative	nikomu
accusative	nikogo
instrumental	nikim
locative	nikim
vocative	nikt

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), nikt is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 7 times in scientific texts, 7 times in news, 25 times in essays, 90 times in fiction, and 118 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 247 times, making it the 216th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

Further reading

• nikt in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• nikt in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “nikt”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• “NIKT”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 21.09.2022
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “nikt”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎^[2]
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “nikt”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861‎^[3]
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1904), “nikt”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎^[4] (in Polish), volume 3, Warsaw, page 291

Silesian

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish nikt. By surface analysis, ni- +‎ kto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɲikt/
• Rhymes: -ikt
• Syllabification: nikt

Pronoun

nikt m pers

1. no one, nobody

Declension

Declension of nikt

	singular
nominative	nikt
genitive	nikogo
dative	nikōmu
accusative	nikogo
instrumental	nikim
locative	nikim

Further reading

• nikt in silling.org