niet Dutch · revision 37063

+ {{homograph|1|not}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=891–900, Old Dutch|origins=ine-pro *ne, gem-pro *wihtiz}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /nit/^(Wiktionary)

+ * Often: /ni/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''niet'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Middle Dutch also has ''nicht'', which kept the guttural; it occurs into the 16th century and survives in West Flemish ''nichtemeer'' “no more”.^(MNW)^(WNT)

+ Many dialects say ''nie'' when the word is weakly stressed.^(WNT)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|dum|niet]], earlier [[m|dum|niwet]], [[inh|odt|niewiht|t=nothing]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*naiwwiht]].^(EWN)^(Wiktionary)^(ONW) It was formed from the negative particle [[gem-pro|*ne|t=not]] (see [[nee]]) and a noun that survives as [[wicht]] “creature”, whose first meaning must have been “thing”.^(EWN)^(De Vries & De Tollenaere 2004|263)^(Van Veen & Van der Sijs 1997) The WNT and Wiktionary analyse the first part as [[m|odt|nio|t=never]], a contraction of the negation with [[gem-pro|*aiw-|t=ever]], so that the whole meant “not ever a thing”.^(WNT)^(Wiktionary) Without the element for “ever”, the same pair appears as [[got|𐌽𐌹 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃|tr=ni waihts|t=nothing]].^(EWN)^(WNT)

+

+ The same compound is [[osx|neowiht]], [[goh|niowiht]] (modern [[de|nicht]]), [[ofs|nāwet]] (modern [[fy|net]] “not” and [[m|fy|neat]] “nothing”) and [[ang|nāwiht]], whose descendants are [[en|naught]], [[m|en|nought]] and [[m|en|not]].^(EWN)^(De Vries 1971)^(Franck & Van Wijk 1912) The Old Dutch form was contracted by weakening of its last syllable, through [[m|odt|niewet]], to the modern form, just as [[m|odt|iowiht|t=something]] became [[m|dum|iet]] (see [[iets]]).^(EWN) The negative particle goes back to [[ine-pro|*ne|t=not]].^(Kroonen 2013)^(Orel 2003)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The word was at first a noun, and before the first written records it had already become the pronoun “nothing”.^(EWN) Its oldest record, in a charm of about 891–900, asks ''nedredes thuneuuet'', “do you fear nothing?”^(EWN)^(ONW) In the 10th-century Wachtendonck Psalms it translates Latin ''non'' “not”, and appears in ''fur nieuuehte'' “for nothing”.^(ONW)^(EWN) With a transitive verb it could be read as either “nothing” or “not”, and that is how it became a negating adverb.^(EWN)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle Dutch ''niwet'' still meant “nothing” and ''nit'' “not”, both in the Bernardus translation of about 1240, and ''niet'' soon became the usual negation, as in ''jof en wilde hi niet comen'' “or if he would not come” (1253).^(EWN) At first it reinforced the old negative particle ''en'', ''ne'', which it later replaced;^(Wiktionary)^(ONW) English ''not'' went the same way.^(Wiktionary)^(ONW) As a pronoun “nothing” it went out of free use, and [[niets]] took its place.^(WNT)^(EWN) It lives on in fixed phrases such as [[tenietdoen]] and ''in het niet zinken'' “to fade into insignificance”.^(EWN)^(Van Dale 2014)

+

+ From ''niet des'' North Netherlands speech made ''nietes'' “it is not”, used to contradict, and ''welles'' “it is” was formed after it.^(WNT) As a noun, ''een niet'' came to mean a lottery ticket that wins nothing, recorded only after Kiliaan.^(De Vries 1971)^(Franck & Van Wijk 1912) With the Dutch lotteries this noun reached German through Hamburg in the 18th century as ''Niete'', and Danish ''nitte'' and Swedish ''nit'' followed.^(De Vries 1971)^(Van der Sijs 2010)

+

+ The negation lives on in Afrikaans [[m|af|nie]], and was taken into Negerhollands, Berbice Dutch, Skepi Dutch, Javindo and Petjo.^(Van der Sijs 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 891–900 – Old Dutch ''niewiht'' “nothing” is first recorded, in a charm.^(EWN)^(ONW)

+ * 901–1000 – The Wachtendonck Psalms use it as a negation, translating Latin ''non''.^(Van der Sijs 2001)^(ONW)

+ * c. 1240 – Middle Dutch ''niwet'' “nothing” and ''nit'' “not” appear in the Bernardus translation.^(EWN)^(De Vries & De Tollenaere 2004|263)

+ * 1253 – ''Niet'' is used as a plain negation in a charter.^(EWN)

+ * 1548 – ''Niet'' as a pronoun “nothing” is still in use: ''niet en gaed ter weereld vuer paeis en vrede'' “nothing in the world comes before peace”.^(WNT)

+ * 18th century – The lottery word passes into German as ''Niete''.^(De Vries 1971)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # [[m|en|not]]: negates a verb, a clause or a single word: ''ze komt vandaag niet''.^(Wiktionary)^(WNT)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(het niet)'' [[m|en|nothingness]], nothing, mainly in the phrase ''in het niet zinken (vallen, verzinken) bij'': to amount to nothing beside someone or something.^(Van Dale 2014)

+ # ''(de niet)'' A [[loterij|alt=lottery]] ticket that wins no prize.^(Van Dale 2014)^(WikiWoordenboek)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[niets]]

+ * [[nietig]]

+ * [[niettemin]]

+ * [[niettegenstaande]]

+ * [[deugniet]]

+ * [[tenietdoen]]

+ * [[nietes]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|staple}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=1535}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''niet''' ''f'' (plural nieten, diminutive nietje n)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The staple is probably [[bor|de|Niet|t=rivet]],^(Wiktionary) which continues [[gmh|niet|t=broad-headed nail]].^(De Vries 1971)^(WNT) The German noun belongs with a verb meaning “to strike, to clinch”: [[gml|nēden]], [[goh|hniotan]] (German [[m|de|nieten]]) and [[non|hnjóða|t=to strike, hammer, rivet]], and Middle Dutch had the same verb as [[m|dum|nieden]].^(De Vries 1971)^(WNT)^(VMNW) The WNT points out that a native word would have kept the d of that verb, whereas Dutch has t, as also in the verb [[neten]] that Plantijn (1573) and Kiliaan (1599) record.^(WNT) Wiktionary thinks a direct derivation from the Middle Dutch verb less likely.^(Wiktionary) Southern Dutch has a related verb [[nijden]] with the vowel ij, from which West Flemish has [[nijdnagel]] “rivet”.^(WNT)

+

+ De Vries places the whole group under the stem [[ine-pro|*kneu-]], also seen in [[grc|κνύθος|tr=knúthos|t=small thorn]].^(De Vries 1971)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word first meant a rivet, a nail beaten flat on the other side.^(WNT)^(De Vries 1971) In 1911 the WNT noted ''nijt'' for the small rivet in a pair of scissors in Groningen, and ''nietje'' for the little metal pin that holds sheets of paper together.^(WNT) The rivet word, from Dutch or from German, was borrowed into Danish ''nitte'', Swedish ''nit'', Finnish ''niitti'' and Estonian ''neet'', and Papiamentu took ''nit'' from Dutch.^(Van der Sijs 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1535 – The noun “rivet” is first quoted in the WNT.^(WNT)

+ * 1573 – Plantijn records the verb ''neten'' “to rivet”.^(WNT)

+ * 1599 – Kiliaan records ''neten'' and the southern ''nijden''.^(WNT)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|staple]], a bent wire fastener for paper, usually called by the diminutive [[nietje]].^(Wiktionary)^(WNT)

+ # ''(regional, dated)'' A [[m|en|rivet]].^(WNT)^(De Vries 1971)^(Van der Sijs 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nieten]]

+ * [[nietje]]

+ * [[nietmachine]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ An old third ''niet'' “zinc oxide, flowers of copper” (recorded since Kiliaan) was understood as the negation, as the apothecaries' Latin name ''nil'' shows, but Franck and Van Wijk derive it from Greek–Latin ''onychitis'', a kind of calamine.^(De Vries 1971)^(Franck & Van Wijk 1912)^(Vercoullie 1925)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}