What does it mean to say to someone, "You are nithing!"??
It's in the EC book I'm reading now and I can't find any info from a google search. Basically I gather it means you are nothing or less than nothing to me, something like that. Anyone have any more specific info??
Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
"Nithing"
- SonjaMarie
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 5688
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Vashon, WA
- Contact:
Well only EC can answer this, but maybe it was a typo?
I just did a search an came up with this:
"The word nithing also occurs as niding in modern English. It comes from the Old Norse niðingr and Old English niðing. According to the OED (Shorter OED, 3rd ed, 1959) the meaning is "A vile coward; an abject wretch; a villain of the lowest type". Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) gives the definition "A coward; a dastard; -- a term of utmost opprobrium.""
Maybe that's it? But again only EC can answer.
SM
I just did a search an came up with this:
"The word nithing also occurs as niding in modern English. It comes from the Old Norse niðingr and Old English niðing. According to the OED (Shorter OED, 3rd ed, 1959) the meaning is "A vile coward; an abject wretch; a villain of the lowest type". Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) gives the definition "A coward; a dastard; -- a term of utmost opprobrium.""
Maybe that's it? But again only EC can answer.
SM
The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum
My Booksfree Queue
Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965
My Booksfree Queue
Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965
-
- Reader
- Posts: 66
- Joined: August 2008
I've seen the term most often used in books about Vikings, and it is used as basically one of the worst things you can say to someone: I take it to mean that you are utterly devoid of any of even the least virtues that would make worthy of recognition in society; it means you're not even good enough to be considered loathsome; you're completely worthless.
Great word. Should be brought back into conversation. Less than zero = nithing?
Bodo the Apostate, a novel set during the reign of Louis the Pious and end of the Carolingian Empire.
http://www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZthhY6 ... annel_page
- JaneConsumer
- Reader
- Posts: 125
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: U.S.
- Contact:
"Nithing" was also used as an insult in Anglo-Saxon England.
The word "nithing" apparently survived into the mid-19th century in dialects in parts of England, ( meaning -“vile coward, wretch, villain of the lowest type")
The root of the word is similar in both Scandinavian and Germanic languages, including Anglo-Saxon.
<Níð (Old Norse) (Anglo-Saxon nith, Old High German (OHG) nid(d), modern German form Neid, modern Low Saxon nied) in ancient Germanic mythology was the constituting and qualifying attribute for people suspected of being a malicious mythological creature called nithing (Old Norse níðing, OHG nidding, more recent High German Neiding). Nith literally meant "envy, hate, malice, insidiousness".>
The insult could be compounded by setting up what was called a "nithing post"
There's a bit about this practice here-
The word "nithing" apparently survived into the mid-19th century in dialects in parts of England, ( meaning -“vile coward, wretch, villain of the lowest type")
The root of the word is similar in both Scandinavian and Germanic languages, including Anglo-Saxon.
<Níð (Old Norse) (Anglo-Saxon nith, Old High German (OHG) nid(d), modern German form Neid, modern Low Saxon nied) in ancient Germanic mythology was the constituting and qualifying attribute for people suspected of being a malicious mythological creature called nithing (Old Norse níðing, OHG nidding, more recent High German Neiding). Nith literally meant "envy, hate, malice, insidiousness".>
The insult could be compounded by setting up what was called a "nithing post"
There's a bit about this practice here-
I'm late to this and everyone's explained just as well if not better than I could!
Absolutely. Treacherous, cowardly, dirt beneath the shoes, to be shunned, lowest of the low. Worst name you could call a person in late Anglo Saxon England (don't know about early, haven't studied that!)
Absolutely. Treacherous, cowardly, dirt beneath the shoes, to be shunned, lowest of the low. Worst name you could call a person in late Anglo Saxon England (don't know about early, haven't studied that!)
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
-
- Reader
- Posts: 66
- Joined: August 2008
[quote=""EC2""]I'm late to this and everyone's explained just as well if not better than I could!
Absolutely. Treacherous, cowardly, dirt beneath the shoes, to be shunned, lowest of the low. Worst name you could call a person in late Anglo Saxon England (don't know about early, haven't studied that!)[/quote]
"Anathema," if you will
Absolutely. Treacherous, cowardly, dirt beneath the shoes, to be shunned, lowest of the low. Worst name you could call a person in late Anglo Saxon England (don't know about early, haven't studied that!)[/quote]
"Anathema," if you will
And in the odd-spot category- just in case you thought that the practice of setting up a spite-stake, or nithing-post died out with the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, here's a post from a relatively contemporary pagan tp prove you wrong!
http://www.traditionalwitchcraft.net/mo ... ic&p=16273
http://www.traditionalwitchcraft.net/mo ... ic&p=16273