| 释义 |
nithing Now only arch. or Hist.|ˈnaɪðɪŋ|
[a. ON. níðing-r (MSw. nidhingr, Norw., Sw., and Da. niding), f. níð nithe n. Cf. MHG. nîdinc, G. neiding.]
1. A vile coward; an abject or despicable wretch; a villain of the lowest type.
See also niddering, nidderling, and niding. The OE. negative form unníðing, of which two examples are given below, corresponds to an ODa. úníþingr, which occurs on a runic stone (of the early part of the 11th cent.) found in 1905 at Aarhus in Denmark. An Edgarus dictus Unniþing is also named in Dugdale's Monast. Angl. V. 400.
a1000in Liebermann Gesetze Ang. 392 Walreaf is niðinges dæde. c1050O.E. Chron. (MS. C.) an. 1049 Se cing þa & eall here cwædon Sweᵹen for niðing. c1125William of Malmesbury Gesta Regum (Rolls) II. 362 Jubet, ut compatriotas advocent ad obsidionem venire, nisi si qui velint sub nomine Niðing, quod nequam sonat, remanere. Angli, qui nihil miserius putarent quam hujusce vocabuli dedecore aduri, catervatim ad regem confluunt. [Cf. O.E. Chron. an. 1087 Þæt ælc man þe wære unniðing sceolde cuman to him.] c1205Lay. 30389 Wurðe for niðing þe mon þe nule hine sturien. a1300K. Horn 196 þanne spak þe gode kyng. I⁓wis he nas no Niþing. [1674Blount Glossogr., Nithing, a Coward, Sluggard, or Out-law.] 1861Pearson Early Mid. Ages Eng. 164 The rebel was now proclaimed a ‘nithing’. Ibid. 294 All who failed to appear were branded as ‘nithings’ or craven, and disgraced for life. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. (1877) 104 The king and the army publicly declared the murderer to be Nithing. 1876Ibid. V. xxiii. 77 The shameful name of nithing was to be the doom of every man..who failed to obey this summons of his lord.
†2. A mean or miserly person; a niggard. Also in comb. meat-nithing (= ON. matníðingr), one who gives food grudgingly. Obs.
a1150in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. CXVII. 22 and 25 Munificus (i. largus)..non parcus, unniding.
a1200Moral Ode 234 (Trin. Coll. MS.), An helle hunger and þurst..þos pine þolieð þo þe ware meteniðinges here. c1250Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 30 Ure lord..habbeþ..maked of þo euele manne good man,..of þe lechur chaste, of þe niþinge large. 13..K. Alis. 2054 The large geveth; the nythyng lourith. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 6723 Þat þey ne be no nythyng Of here mete, ne of here þyng. 1340Ayenb. 109 Þe milde..lovieþ an hondred ziþe more poverte þanne þe niþing deþ his richesse. 1426Audelay Poems 16 He ys a nythying, a noȝt, a negard.
attrib.c1250Gen. & Ex. 3432 He had him chesen steresmen..ðe soð-fastnesse lef ben, And ðe niðing giscing flen.
†b. Used predicatively: Niggardly, sparing.
a1300Cursor M. 28741 For quat es þat spense mai be nithing þar þe lauerd es fre [Cott. Galba what nede es þat þe spenser be nithing of þat þe lord es fre.] 1450Myrc 1285 Hast thou be hard and nythynge, To wythholden any thynge? 1674Ray N.C. Words 34 Nithing, much valuing, sparing of, as Nithing of his pains: i.e. Sparing of his pains.
3. nithing-post, or nithing stake, a post or stake set up as a form of insult to a person.
An inexact rendering of ON. níðstöng.
1847Blackwell in Percy Mallet's North. Antiq. 155 Setting up what was called a Nithing-post or Nithing-stake. 1863Jane Sewell Christian Names II. 277 In the North such a pole was called a nithing post. 1890W. Morris in Eng. Illustr. Mag. Sept. 894 His head on our hall-gable should be to us a nithing-stake, and a tree of reproach. |