nit

nit
   ‘Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou,’ says Petruchio to a tailor, in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. A nit is technically the egg of a louse or other parasitic insect, and our first record of its application to a person in jest or contempt is in Love’s Labour’s Lost It may, therefore, be a truly Shakespearean insult, one that has survived to the present day.
   ‘You stupid British nits’ is addressed to an audience by an African speaker in Cocksure, by Mordecai Richler. He equates the expression with ‘You Anglo-Saxon pigs’. In another of Richler’s novels, St Urbain’s Horseman, ‘you nit’ is addressed by a boy to a girl aged four. Up the City Road, by John Stroud, has a young London man calling his friend ‘nit’ as an obviously friendly insult.

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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  • NIT — Страна Молдова Зона вещания …   Википедия

  • nit — nȋt ž <G i, I i> DEFINICIJA 1. nešto što je tanko i po izgledu kao konac 2. pren. neprekinut slijed čega, nešto što se potanko može pratiti kako teče, razvija i sl. [izgubiti nit] 3. inform. nezavisni skup naredbi koji se samostalno… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • Nit — (n[i^]t), n. [AS. hnitu; akin to D. neet, G. niss, OHG. niz; cf. Gr. koni s, koni dos, Icel. gnit, Sw. gnet, Dan. gnid, Russ. & Pol. gnida, Bohem. hnida, W. nedd.] (Zo[ o]l.) The egg of a louse or other small insect. [1913 Webster] {Nit grass}… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Nit — bezeichnet: eine veraltete Einheit der Leuchtdichte: Nit (Leuchtdichteeinheit) eine veraltete Einheit der Informationsmenge: Nit (Informationseinheit) eine altägyptische Gottheit: Neith (Ägyptische Mythologie) das englische Wort für Nisse(n), die …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • nit — nit1 [nit] n. [ME nite < OE hnitu, akin to Ger niss < IE base * knid , louse, nit, prob. < * ken , to scratch] 1. the egg of a louse or similar insect 2. a young louse, etc. nit2 [nit] n. [Chiefly Brit.] short for NITWIT …   English World dictionary

  • nit — (n.) O.E. hnitu louse egg, nit, from P.Gmc. *khnito (Cf. Norw. nit, M.Du. nete, Du. neet, M.H.G. niz, Ger. Niß), from PIE root *knid egg of a louse (Cf. Rus., Pol. gnida, Czech knida; Gk. konidos, gen. kon …   Etymology dictionary

  • nit — [nit] n. m. ÉTYM. Mil. XXe (in Larousse, 1953); lat. nitidus « brillant », de nitere « briller ». → Nitescence. ❖ ♦ Sc. Unité de luminance, valant une candela par mètre carré de surface apparente …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • nit — [nıt] n [: Old English; Origin: hnitu] 1.) an egg of a ↑louse (=a small insect that sucks blood) , that is sometimes found in people s hair 2.) BrE informal a silly person …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • nit — [ nıt ] noun count the egg of an insect called a LOUSE that people sometimes have in their hair …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • NIT — puede hacer referencia a: Número de Identificación Tributaria. National Invitation Tournament. Unidad de Luminancia, equivalente a candelas /metro2. Esta página de desambiguación cataloga artículos relacionados con el mismo título. Si llegaste… …   Wikipedia Español

  • nît — ž 〈G i, I i〉 1. {{001f}}nešto što je tanko i po izgledu kao konac 2. {{001f}}pren. neprekinut slijed čega, nešto što se potanko može pratiti kako teče, razvija i sl. [izgubiti ∼] 3. {{001f}}inform. nezavisni skup naredbi koji se samostalno… …   Veliki rječnik hrvatskoga jezika

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