nix

See also: Nix and *nix

English

WOTD – 26 November 2008

Etymology 1

From German nix, colloquial form of nichts (“nothing”). Compare also Dutch niks (“nothing”), informal for niets (“nothing”). More at naught.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /nɪks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪks
• Homophone: nicks

Noun

nix (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) Nothing. [from 1789]

   Synonyms: nada, zip

   • 1912, Edna Ferber, “Maymeys from Cuba”, in Buttered Side Down:

     "That's a clean lift from Kipling—or is it Conan Doyle? Anyway, I've read something just like it before. Say, kid, guess what these magazine guys get for a full page ad.? Nix. That's just like a woman. Three thousand straight. Fact."

   • 1920, Harold MacGrath, chapter 26, in The Drums of Jeopardy:

     "I can take you down, Miss Conover, but I cannot take Mr. Hawksley. When the boss gives me an order I obey it—if I possibly can. On the day the boss tells me you can go strolling, I'll give you the key to the city. Until then, nix! No use arguing, Mr. Hawksley."

Translations

colloquial: nothing

• Afrikaans: niks
• Bulgarian: нищо (bg) n (ništo), нула (bg) f (nula)
• Czech: nic (cs)
• Danish: niks
• Dutch: niets (nl), niks (nl)
• Finnish: niks
• French: ne...rien or rien (fr), que dalle (fr)
• Galician: nada
• German: nix (de)

• Italian: niente (it)
• Norwegian: niks (no)
• Persian: هیچ‎ (fa) (hič)
• Portuguese: nada (pt) m
• Russian: ничто́ (ru) (ništó)
• Spanish: nada (es)

Verb

nix (third-person singular simple present nixes, present participle nixing, simple past and past participle nixed)

1. To make something become nothing; to reject or cancel. [from 1903]

   Synonyms: cancel, reject

   Nix the last order – the customer walked out.

   • 1935 July 17, “Sticks Nix Hick Pix”, in Variety, volume 119, number 5, page 1:

     Sticks Nix Hick Pix [headline]

   • 1999, Owen W. Linzmayer, Apple Confidential, San Francisco: No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 242:

     The move came less than six months after Jobs had nixed the spin-off of Newton Inc. as an independent company and brought it back inside Apple (see “The Fallen Apple,” page 143).

   • 2012 June 17, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Homer’s Triple Bypass” (season 4, episode 11; originally aired 12/17/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     At work Mr. Burns spies Homer munching complacently on a donut and hisses that each donut Homer shoves into his fat face brings him one donut closer to the poisoned donut Mr. Burns has ordered thrown into the mix as a form of culinary Russian Roulette, only to learn from Smithers that the plant’s lawyers ultimately nixed the poisoned donut plan because “they consider it murder.”

2. To destroy or eradicate.

Translations

to reject or cancel

• Dutch: verwerpen (nl)
• Finnish: torpata (fi)
• German: verwerfen (de), annullieren (de), stornieren (de)

• Persian: هیچ گرداندن‎ (hič gardāndan)
• Russian: запреща́ть (ru) (zapreščátʹ), отменя́ть (ru) (otmenjátʹ)
• Spanish: anular (es), rechazar (es), cancelar (es)

to destroy

• Dutch: vernietigen (nl)
• Finnish: niitata (fi)
• German: zerstören (de), vernichten (de)

• Persian: نابود کردن‎ (nābud kardan)
• Spanish: destruir (es), erradicar (es), exterminar (es), aniquilar (es)
• Swedish: näcken

Adverb

nix (not comparable)

1. No! Not at all!
   • 1916 January 1, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 472, column 2:

     "Ugh! An inventor, eh?" "Nix! He's not an inventor himself, but he antes-up for 'em."

Interjection

nix

1. (obsolete) A warning cry when a policeman or schoolmaster etc. was seen approaching.

Related terms

• 86 / eighty-six
• ixnay
• mox nix

Etymology 2

From German Nix, from Middle High German nickes, niches, from Old High German nichus, nihhus, from Proto-Germanic *nikwus (“water-spirit; nix”), from Proto-Indo-European *neygʷ- (“to wash”). Cognate with Old English nicor (“a water-monster; hippopotamus”).

Noun

nix (plural nixes)

1. A treacherous water-spirit; a nixie.

Translations

water spirit

• Bulgarian: воден дух m (voden duh)
• Dutch: nikker (nl) m, nix (nl) m, watergeest (nl) m
• Esperanto: nikso
• Finnish: näkki (fi)
• German: Nix (de) m, Nöck m

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nøkk m

  Nynorsk: nykk m, nøkk m

• Swedish: näcken c

Anagrams

• Xin

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Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• nieks (variant spellings)
• neihst (Moselle Franconian)
• nüüx (westernmost Ripuarian)
• nühs (most of Ripuarian)

Etymology

From German nix. Compare Central Franconian nüüx and nühs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /niks/

Pronoun

nix (indefinite)

1. nothing

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Classical Nahuatl

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈníːʃ]

Noun

nīx (inanimate)

1. first-person singular possessive singular of īxtli; (it is) my eye.
2. first-person singular possessive plural of īxtli; (they are) my eyes.

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Danish

Etymology

From German nichts (“nothing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /neɡs/, [neɡ̊s]

Interjection

nix or niks

1. no, no way

Pronoun

nix

1. (non-standard form of) niks

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɪks/
• Hyphenation: nix
• Rhymes: -ɪks

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Nixe.

Noun

nix m (plural nixen)

1. nix, nixie (water spirit)
   • 1956, s-Gravenhage. Maandblad der gemeente 's-Gravenhage, page 14.

     Zijn dit nu de nixen van Heinrich Heine of de zwanen van de Scandinavische ballades?

     Are these then Heinrich Heine's nixes or the swans of Scandinavian ballads?

   Synonyms: nikker, watergeest

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German nix.

Pronoun

nix

1. (slang) Deliberate misspelling of niks.

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German

Etymology

A widespread form in dialects all over the German language area, probably the same as standard nichts, viz. a contraction of it.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɪks/

• (file)

• (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪks

Pronoun

nix

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of nichts (“nothing”)

   Ich hab nix gesehen. ― I saw nothing.

Descendants

• → English: nix

Interjection

nix

1. no way!

   Nix! Jetzt ist Schluss hier!

   No way! That's it now!

Further reading

• “nix” in Duden online
• “nix” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *sniks (with oblique stem *sniɣʷ- > niv-), from Proto-Indo-European *snéygʷʰs (“snow”), root noun derived from *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”) (whence also Latin nivit, ningit, ninguit). Direct cognates include Ancient Greek νίφα (nípha) and Old Irish snechtae and indirectly also Sanskrit स्नेह (sneha), Old Church Slavonic снѣгъ (sněgŭ) and Old English snāw and snīwan (English snow and snew).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /niks/, [nɪks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /niks/, [niks]

Noun

nix f (genitive nivis); third declension

1. snow
   • 16 BCE, Ovid, Amores 3.6.92–93:

     Fontis habēs īnstar pluviamque nivēsque solūtās,
          quās tibi dīvitiās pigra ministrat hiemps.

     For a source you have the rain and the melting snows,
          riches which lazy winter administers to you.

2. (figuratively) white hair
   • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horace, Odes 5.13.9–12:

     Importūnus enim trānsvolat āridās
     quercūs et refugit tē, quia lūridī
        dentēs tē, quia rūgae
          turpant et capitis nivēs.

     For he flies, importune, past the dry
     oaks and avoids you, because the yellowed
        teeth, because the wrinkes
          and the white hair make you ugly.

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nix	nivēs
Genitive	nivis	nivium
Dative	nivī	nivibus
Accusative	nivem	nivēs nivīs
Ablative	nive	nivibus
Vocative	nix	nivēs

Derived terms

• *nivō
• *nivicō

Related terms

• ningit
• nivālis
• nivātus
• nivere
• niveus
• nivōsus

 

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: neauã, aneauã, neao, niau
  • Istro-Romanian: ne
  • Megleno-Romanian: neauă
  • Romanian: nea
• Dalmatian:
  • nai
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: neve
  • Neapolitan: neve, neva
  • Sicilian: nivi
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: neiv, neva, neiva, nev
    • Lombard: nef, nif, nöu, neif, nev
    • Old Ligurian: neive
      • Ligurian: neie
    • Piedmontese: neu, nef
    • Romagnol: neiva, nev
  • Friulian: nêf, nêv, gnu (Dignano)
  • Istriot: nìo
  • Ladin: nëif, nei (Belluno)
  • Romansch: naiv, nev, neif
  • Venetian: neve
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: nê, neu, nei, neif (Valdôtain)
  • Old French: neif, noif, noi
    • Norman: nê, noif
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian:

    Campidanese: ni, nii, nia

    Logudorese: nie

    Nuorese: nibe, nive

• Vulgar Latin: *nĕvis (see there for further descendants)

References

• Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang (2008-), “*/ˈnɪβ-e/”, in Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman, Nancy: Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française.
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “nĭx”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 438
• von Wartburg, Walther (1928–2002), “nĭx”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 7: N–Pas, page 156

Further reading

• “nix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

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Low German

Alternative forms

• nicks, Nicks, niks

Etymology

Compare to German nichts (“nothing”)

Pronoun

nix

1. nothing

Derived terms

• nix för ungud (Paderbornisch); nix för ungood/nix för ungod (North-Western)

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Pennsylvania German

Etymology

Compare German nichts.

Pronoun

nix

1. nothing

---

Swedish

Etymology

From German nichts (“nothing”).

Interjection

nix

1. (slang) not, no (negative response to a question)

   Någon undrade om guldfonder, men nix sade Claes, alltför osäkert.

   Someone asked about gold funds, but Claes said "nope, too risky".

   – Är det någon vi känner? Frågade pappa. – Nix, svarade jag.

   Dad asked "Is it someone we know?" "No", I answered.

Synonyms

• nix pix