Notting Hill. Properly “Knolton Barn Hill,” the ancient description of a manor of the De Veres, which in the time of Henry VIII. was held by Robert Fenroper, an alderman of the city of London.
Not worth a Dam. See “[Don’t care a Dam].”
Not worth a Rap. A rap was an Irish copper coin issued early in the eighteenth century to supply a long-felt need for very small money. Nominally worth a halfpenny, its metal was so thin and base that it never passed for more than a farthing. Its infinitesimal value consequently gave rise to this expression.
Not worth a Song. A song is worth nothing at all after its popularity has waned. The good old songs live on account of their intrinsic merits, but they were not pushed into public favour by adventitious methods at the time of publication. Those of our day are ground out of street pianos and sung everywhere for a brief season, then heard no more.
Nova Scotia. This name, expressive of “New Scotland,” was bestowed upon the island by Sir William Alexander, a Scotsman, to whom James I. granted a charter of colonisation in 1621.
Nova Zembla. From the Slavonic Nowaja Zemlja, “new land.”
November. From novem, nine, the ninth month of the Roman calendar when the year commenced with March.
Noyau. Expresses the French for the stone or nut of a fruit; hence the name given to a cordial flavoured with the kernel of the bitter almond or peach stone.
Nun. From the Italian nonna, a grandmother. Those who retired into convents originally were aged women. It was only in modern times that seminaries for girls were established in convents; this opened the way to maidens becoming deeply imbued with religious ideas and secluding themselves from the world by taking the veil.
Nunhead. From a tea garden and holiday resort known to Londoners as “The Nun’s Head” ever since the days of James I.