nish

English

Etymology

From German nichts (“nothing”), possibly via Yiddish נישט (nisht, “no, not”). Originally Polari slang.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Pronoun

nish

1. (UK, slang) nothing.
   • 1998 March 4, Janie Lawrence, quoting Ian Dury, “The Dury's Out”, in The Independent‎^[1]:

     If you like the director you do it for nish, so Marcus Thompson got us all to do it for nothing.

   • 2017, Dreda Say Mitchell, Blood Mother: Flesh and Blood Trilogy Book Two, Hachette UK (→ISBN)

     I've got nish to say to you. You can save your breath.

   • 2017 September 20, BBC Backstage Music Pass‎^[2], Liam Gallagher (actor):

     These fucking little smart arses download fucking tunes for nish.

Anagrams

• Shin, hins, his'n, hisn, shin, sinh

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Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish indossa (cognate with Irish anois, Scottish Gaelic a-nis).

Adverb

nish

1. now

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “indossa”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language