Middle English edit

Noun edit

niht

  1. Alternative form of nyght

Old English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *nahti, inflected form of *naht,[1] from Proto-Germanic *nahts, from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (the alternative forms næht, neaht directly continue Proto-West Germanic *naht).

Cognate with Old Frisian nacht, Old Saxon naht, Old High German naht, Old Norse nátt, Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts); also with Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Latin nox, Russian ночь (nočʹ).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

niht f

  1. night[2]
    On niht biþ sēo ēa ġīet wlitiġre þonne on dæġ.
    The river is even more beautiful at night than in the daytime.
    • late 10th century, Ælfric, On the Seasons of the Year
      Sēo niht hæfþ seofon dǣlas fram þǣre sunnan setlunge oþ hire upgang.
      The night has seven phases from sunset to sunrise.
  2. day (when computing spans of time)
    for tīen nihtum
    ten days ago

Declension edit

Antonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

References edit

  1. ^ Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 240
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “niht”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.