Etymology: Cognate with West Frisian neb , nebbe beak, Middle Dutch nebbe , neb , nyb beak (Dutch neb ), Middle Low German nebbe , nibbe beak, Old Icelandic nef nose, beak, Norwegian regional nev , næv beak, Old Swedish næf beak (Swedish regional näv ), and also (with s- prefix) Dutch sneb (1599) beak, Middle Low German snebbe , snibbe beak, point of a shoe (compare also Old Frisian snabba mouth (West Frisian snabbe ), Middle Dutch snabbe , snab beak (Dutch †snabbe , †snab ); and the list of Germanic cognates s.v. snaffle n.¹), ultimately < the same Indo-European base as Lithuanian snapas beak. Scandinavian forms of more recent origin, as Norwegian nebb , Old Swedish næb (Swedish näbb ), Old Danish næb (Danish næb ), all in sense ‘beak’, probably represent a hypocoristic formation with doubling of consonant, perhaps after the early Scandinavian word represented by Old Swedish nabber point, promontory, and cognate forms (compare nab n.¹), probably reinforced by borrowing from Middle Low German. Compare also 19th-cent. Shetland Scots nev beak, point, handle of an oar ( < the unattested Norn reflex of the early Scandinavian word represented by Old Icelandic nef: see above).A connection with the Germanic base of nave n.¹, as tentatively suggested by N.E.D. (1906), is unlikely.

Etymology: < neb n.