nard

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English narde, inherited from Old English nard,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin nardus,^[3][2][6] and in Middle English it is also borrowed from Middle French narde, which reinforced the Latin loan.^[3][7][8] In Anglo-Norman, narde is recorded from the early 13th century.^[9] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek νάρδος (nárdos),^{[3][7][10][11]} which is of Semitic origin:^[11][7][8] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compare the Hebrew name of the plant,^[7][8] and Klein adds Aramaic and Akkadian forms.^[12] The Semitic word is probably from Sanskrit नलद (nálada, “Indian spikenard”),^{[8][10][7][5][1]} although Klein reports an older view that the source was an Indo-Iranian word for reed and that the Sanskrit name is a Sanskritization of the Greek, beside Mayrhofer's derivation of the Semitic words from the Sanskrit.^[12] Skeat derived the Greek word from Persian.^[13] The Latin word was also borrowed as Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (nardus) and Old High German narda,^[2][3] and it is the source of Italian nardo and Spanish nardo.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fragrant ointment: Old English, in the West Saxon Gospels' version of Mark 14:3, sealfbox deórwyrþes nardes, a box of ointment of precious nard.^[3][2] The plant it was made from is named in the Old English translation of the Medicina de Quadrupedibus.^[3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Both the ointment and the plant go back to Old English.^[3] From about 1440, in a translation of Palladius, nard was also applied to other aromatic plants, chiefly of the valerian family, and to their roots,^[3][14] under names such as rustic nard and Indian nard that follow Latin and Greek names in Pliny and Hellenistic Greek;^[3] from 1866 it was also a name for mat-grass.^[3][8] Hoad dates the ointment sense to the 14th century and the plant name, as in spikenard, to the 16th.^[11] Johnson (1755) gave both "spikenard; a kind of ointment" and "an odorous shrub", quoting Milton's "cassia, nard and balm".^[15] Tennyson used nard as a verb, to anoint with nard, in 1879.^[3]

Timeline

• Old English – a fragrant ointment; the plant from which it was made.^[3][2][5]
• c. 1440 – other aromatic plants, chiefly valerians, and their roots.^[3]
• 1866 – mat-grass, Nardus stricta.^[3]
• 1879 – verb, to anoint with nard.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Spikenard, an aromatic Himalayan plant of the valerian family.^[14][8][3]
2. The fragrant ointment made from the rhizome of this plant, prized in antiquity.^[8][3][5]
3. Any of several other plants whose aromatic roots were once used in medicine.^[14][8][3]
4. (rare) Mat-grass.^[3][8]

Verb

1. (obsolete) To anoint with nard.^[8][3]

Word family

• spikenard

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.