نوه
noh, pretium dedit, donum. I am not aware that the word freight (not used in the sense of cargo or merchandise, but as the price of carriage of the merchandise, merces pro vectura) is to be found in the Old Testament, otherwise some light might be thrown on the matter by a reference to the cognate Hebrew word.
But here an interesting question presents itself. The word freight in Greek is ναῦλος or ναῦλον, and in Latin naulum. Have these any connexion with the Arabic word, or are they to be traced to an independent source, and the coincidence in sense and sound with the Arabic merely accidental? If distinct, are the words now in use in the Mediterranean ports derived from the Greek or the Arabic? If the words be not identical, may not the Greek be derived from the Sanscrit, thus
nau, or in the pure form
nawah, or resolved, naus, a ship or boat;
nauyáyin quasi nouyáyil, or abbreviated naul, that which goes into a ship or boat, i.e. freight, fare, or, by metonyme, the price of freight, or passage-money. It is to be noted that nolis, though in general use in the Mediterranean ports (Marseilles, for example) to denote the price of freight, or of carriage, is not so in the northern parts of France. At Havre the word is frêt, the same as our freight, the German fracht, viz. that which is carried or ferried, and, by metonyme, as before, the price of carriage.
J. Sh.