nep
Translingual edit
Symbol edit
nep
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English neppe, nepe, nepte, nept, from Old English nepte, nefte, from Latin nepeta. Compare Dutch neppe, nippe (“catnip”).
Alternative forms edit
- nip (dialectal)
Noun edit
nep (usually uncountable, plural neps)
- Catmint, catnip; Nepeta cataria.
- 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio, published 2007, page 201:
- Nep is generally used for women to procure their courses, being taken inwardly or outwardly, either alone or with other convenient herbs in a decoction to bathe them, of sit over the hot fumes thereof.
Etymology 2 edit
Perhaps a variant of nap for knap, from Middle English knep, kneppe, knappe, a conflation of Old English cnep, cnæp, cnæpp (“top, knop, summit”) and Old Norse knappr (“knob”), both from Proto-Germanic *knappaz, *knappô (“knob”), from Proto-Indo-European *gnebʰ- (“to press, tighten”), from Proto-Indo-European *gen- (“to pinch, squeeze, bend, press together, ball”). Compare also Old Norse hnappr (“button”). Related to knob.
Noun edit
nep (plural neps)
Verb edit
nep (third-person singular simple present neps, present participle nepping, simple past and past participle nepped)
- (UK, dialect, intransitive) Of cotton: to form knots.
Etymology 3 edit
Short for nepotist.
Noun edit
nep (plural neps)
- (US, slang, derogatory) One who engages in nepotism, usually to the one who benefits from it.
Anagrams edit
Ainu edit
Etymology edit
From ne (“interrogatory root”) + p (“thing”). See nekon, nen.
Pronunciation edit
Pronoun edit
nep (Kana spelling ネㇷ゚)
- (interrogative) what
Usage notes edit
Less common in spoken language than hemanta.
Synonyms edit
See also edit
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
From German Nepp. Originally Bargoens.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
nep m (uncountable)
Adjective edit
nep (comparative nepper, superlative nepst)
- fake, not real
- artificial, not natural
Inflection edit
Some Dutch speakers may consider attributive use of this adjective informal. Thus, the inflected form neppe is not very commonly used in more formal language. In such language, the word is used more often in compounds formed by prefixing with nep-. The predicative and partitive forms are used normally.
Inflection of nep | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | nep | |||
inflected | neppe | |||
comparative | nepper | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | nep | nepper | het nepst het nepste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | neppe | neppere | nepste |
n. sing. | nep | nepper | nepste | |
plural | neppe | neppere | nepste | |
definite | neppe | neppere | nepste | |
partitive | neps | neppers | — |
Synonyms edit
Antonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
nep
- Alternative form of nap (“drinking bowl”)