nest

Forms

nest n (strong a-stem; genitive singular nestes)^[1] The Lindisfarne gloss has the plural nestas and nesto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą.^[1] Kroonen and Orel set up the Proto-Germanic form with /i/, Proto-Germanic *nista-, continued also by Old High German nest and Middle Low German nest.^[3][4] The word is found only in West Germanic.^[5][6]

It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“seat”), a compound of *ni- (“down”) and the root of "to sit", which came to mean "lair, nest".^[5][3][7] The same word is Latin nīdus (“nest”), Old Irish net, Welsh nyth, Sanskrit नीड (nīḍá, “resting-place, nest”) and Old Armenian նիստ (nist, “seat, place”).^[4][7][1] Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo) and Lithuanian lìzdas have irregular initial consonants.^[4] Wiktionary notes that the word became neuter in Germanic.^[1]

The vowel /e/ is the lowering of /i/ before a non-high vowel, a change common in Old Frisian and Old Saxon but in Old English found only in nest, wer "man" and one form of spic "bacon".^[8] Ringe and Taylor note that the lowering may already have taken place in Proto-Germanic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the second half of the tenth century, in The Phoenix in the Exeter Book and in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[9][10][11] The phoenix says ic in minum neste neobed ceose “I shall choose a death-bed in my nest”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bird's nest, the word also meant the young birds in it, a brood.^[12][13] It renders Latin “nidus” in glosses and in the Gospel verse about the birds of the air that have nests.^[14][12] The Phoenix speaks of building a nest with the verbs timbran, gearwian and wyrcan.^[12]

The word lived on as Middle English nest, used also of the nests of other animals and of a brood; it is English nest.^[15][6]

Timeline

• s. x² – ic in minum neste neobed ceose in The Phoenix (Exeter Book).^[9][12]
• s. x³/⁴ – nestas, nesto glossing Latin “nidos” in the Lindisfarne gloss to Matthew 8:20.^[10][2]
• s. x ex. – the word in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[16][11]
• c1230 – Nest is heard utewið of prikinde þornes “a nest is hard outside with pricking thorns” in the Ancrene Riwle.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. a bird's nest.^[12][13]
2. the young birds in a nest, a brood.^[12][17]

Word family

• nistian
• nestlian

Descendants

• Middle English nest (→ English nest; Scots nest)^[1]

Usage notes

A second noun nest “provisions, rations”, found in poetry and glosses, is a separate word, made from the verb nesan.^[18][14][12] It glosses Latin “epimenia” in the Erfurt Glossary.^[19] The forms nēst, nēsta of the Vespasian Psalter and the charters belong to nīehst “nearest”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. nest
3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 391
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 287
5. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 34
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 234
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 3.9
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 291
11. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 716
13. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 248
14. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. nest
15. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 407
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 146
18. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 388
19. ^ Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 110