Etymologically
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niht

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Pronunciation

  • /nixt/, [niçt][1]

Forms

niht f (strong consonant stem)[1] Anglian næht, neht;[2][3] West Saxon neaht, early nieht; late niht.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *nahti, an inflected form of *naht, from Proto-Germanic *nahts (“night”).[1] The Proto-Germanic noun survives in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts), Old Norse nátt, Old Frisian nacht, Old Saxon naht and Old High German naht.[4][5][6]

Ringe and Taylor trace the Old English vowel to the Proto-Germanic genitive and dative singular and nominative plural, which all fell together in that Proto-West Germanic form; through i-umlaut and palatal diphthongisation this gave West Saxon ⟨nieht⟩, later ⟨niht⟩, and the form spread to the nominative, while Anglian had ⟨neht⟩.[7] The forms næht and neaht continue the uninflected Proto-West Germanic nominative.[1]

Kroonen reconstructs a static t-stem, nominative Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts, genitive *nékʷts, and suggests that it began as *dʰnogʷ-t-, related to the adjective Proto-Germanic *dinkwa- (“dark”), and lost its first consonant by dissimilation.[4] The comparanda include Latin nox, Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Lithuanian naktìs and Hittite nekuz (“evening”).[5][8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is recorded from the mid-ninth century: the Vespasian Psalter gloss writes ic ðwea ðorh syndrie neht bed min mid tearum “I will wash my bed every night with tears” over the Latin “lauabo per singulas noctes lectum meum” of Psalm 6.[9][10] The Pastoral Care (890×897) has the West Saxon form: God led Moses through the desert mid ðy fyrenan sweore on nieht, & on dæg mid ðy sweore ðæs wolcnes “with the fiery pillar by night and by day with the pillar of the cloud”.[11][10]

Semantic evolution

The word is night as against day, and darkness as against light, also the darkness of damnation (sēo swearte niht ðǣre ēcan geniþerunge).[12] In reckoning time it counts days, as in sennight and fortnight: Beowulf has seofon niht “a week” and fīf nihta.[12][13] It also marks a particular night or occasion, and nightfall, as in oþ niht “until nightfall”.[14] The genitive nihtes is used as an adverb, “by night”.[13]

The word lived on as Middle English night, which the MED quotes first from the Peterborough Chronicle for 1122, and is now English night.[2][3]

Timeline

  • s. ix med. – neht glossing “noctes” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[9][10]
  • 890×897 – on nieht in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).[11][10]
  • s. ix/x – oþ niht “until nightfall” in the Parker Chronicle for 871.[14][15]
  • s. x/xi – seofon niht “a week” in the Beowulf manuscript.[13][16]
  • 1122 – the MED's first quotation for Middle English night, from the Peterborough Chronicle.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. night, the dark part of the day.[12][17]
  2. darkness, also figurative.[12][18]
  3. in reckoning time, a day: seofon niht “a week”.[12][18][13]
  4. a particular night, an occasion.[14]
  5. nightfall.[14]

Word family

  • midniht
  • middelniht
  • ġiestranniht
  • efnniht
  • ēasterniht
  • nihtes
  • nihtlang
  • nihtsang
  • nihtegale
  • nihtweard

Descendants

  • Middle English nyght (→ English night; English nite; English neet)[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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)
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 381
  5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 279
  6. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 405
  7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 240
  8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 236
  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. 329
  10. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
  11. ^ 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. 499
  12. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 720
  13. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. niht
  14. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 651
  15. ^ 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. 83
  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. 344
  17. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. niht
  18. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 147