nipitato, strong liquor; ‘A drink In England found, and Nipitato call’d, Which driveth all the sorrow from your hearts’, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 2 (Pompiona). Hence, nippitate, strong (said of wine), Chapman, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (Collen). See Nares.
nis, is not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19. ME. nis (Chaucer). OE. nis, for ne is, is not.
niste, nist, knew not. Spelt nyst, Morte Arthur, leaf 339. 4; bk. xvi, c. 9. ME. niste (Chaucer, C. T. F. 502). OE. nyste, for ne wyste; wiste, pt. t. of witan, to know.
nithing, a vile coward; a term of severe reproach. Nithing, Blount’s Gloss.; spelt niding, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xviii (end); p. 79. Icel. nīðingr, legally the strongest term of abuse for a traitor, coward, or the like (Vigfusson).
no, used ironically; ‘No rich idolatry’ (i.e. great idolatry), Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (Learchus); ‘No villainy’ (i.e. great villainy), Mad Lover, iii. 6 (Chilax).
noble, a coin worth 6s. 8d. Richard II, i. 1. 88.
noblesse, noble birth or condition. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 297; the nobility, persons of noble rank, ‘There is in every state . . . two portions of subjects; the Noblesse and the Commonaltie’, Bacon, Essay 15, § 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 119 (1st quarto only). ME. noblesse, nobleness, noble rank (Chaucer). F. noblesse, ‘nobility, gentry; gentlemanliness’ (Cotgr.).
nobley, great display, splendour. Morte Arthur, leaf 158, back, 8; bk. viii, c. 29; lf. 211, back, 32; bk. 10, c. 6. ME. nobley, nobility, dignity, splendour, noble rank; assembly of nobles (Chaucer). OF. noblei(e, nobility of rank or estate; Anglo-F. noblei, nobleness (Rough List).
nocent, harmful. Milton, P. L. ix. 186; guilty, Greene, James IV, v. 6 (Sir Cuthbert). L. nocens, hurtful, culpable.
nock, a notch at the end of a bow, or in the head of an arrow; ‘The nocke of the shafte’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 127). Also, the cleft of the buttocks, Butler, Hud. i. 1. 285. Du. nock, ‘a notch in the head of an arrowe’ (Hexham). See Nares.