nyen.
/nʌɪ/, U.S. /naɪ/ Now archaic and English regional.
A brood of pheasants.By later writers and glossarists often supposed to be a general collective noun for a group or flock of pheasants: cf. quots. 1706, 1931.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > [noun] > genus Phasianus > phasianus colchicus (pheasant) > brood
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eyea1475
nide1679
c1400 Femina (Trin. Cambr.) (1909) 2 Nye dez fesauntez, a nye of fesauntes.
1448 in J. Hodgkin Proper Terms (1909) 56 (MED) A ny of fesantes.
1486 Bk. St. Albans sig. fvj A Nye of Fesaunttys.
a1500 Terms Assoc. in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1962) 13 53 (MED) A Nye of Feysantes.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xiii. 310/2 A Ny of Pheasants.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Nye of pheasants (among fowlers), a flight, or great company of those birds.
1818 H. J. Todd Johnson's Dict. Eng. Lang. Nye of pheasants, a brood of pheasants: So an eye is sometimes called.
1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases 117 Ni, a brood of pheasants.
1906 A. Conan Doyle Sir Nigel xi. 139 ‘That jack-fool..was here talking of having seen a covey of pheasants in the wood.’.. ‘Surely, fair sir, it should be a nye of pheasants.’
1931 Science 16 Jan. 51/2 [In discussion of the historical setting of Conan Doyle's novel Sir Nigel] To speak of a flock of pheasants is a grievous sin against culture—it is a nye of pheasants.
1976 Lebende Sprachen 21 102/2 Nyes of pheasants.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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