| 释义 |
‖ nihil|ˈnaɪhɪl, ˈnɪhɪl|
[L. nihil nothing.]
1. A thing of no worth or value. rare.
1579G. Harvey Wks. (Grosart) I. 124 Counters, which nowe and then stande for hundreds and thousands, by and bye for odd halfpens or farthinges, are other whiles for very nihils. c1610Middleton, etc. Widow i. i, Look you, all these are nihils; They want the punction. 1623I. Bargrave Serm. (1624) 22 While they would be both papists and protestants, they are, indeede, newters and nihils.
2. = nichil n. 2.
1629–30J. Mead in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) II. 62 A commission was directed..to inquire into his lands and goods, and to seize upon them for the king, but they returned a nihil. 1684Manley Cowell's Interpr., Nihil or Nichil, is a word which the Sheriff answers, that is opposed concerning Debts illeviable, and that are nothing worth, by reason of the insufficency of the Parties from whom they are due. [Hence in Phillips (1706), Termes de la Ley (1708).] 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) V. 389 If the sheriff returned nihil upon the summons, an alias and a pluries issued.
Hence † nihiˈlagent, one who does nothing.
1579–80G. Harvey Lett. Wks. (Grosart) I. 99 As if..we were borne to be the only Nonproficients and Nihilagents of the world. |