[‘ A coward, a villain; a person who breaks the law or a code of honour; an outlaw.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈnʌɪðɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnaɪðɪŋ/
Forms: OE–eME *niðing*, lOE–ME 16– *nithing*, eME *niþinc*, eME *niþincke*, ME *niþing*, ME *niþinge*, ME *nythyng*, ME *nythynge*, ME *nyþing*, ME *nyþyng*, ME 19– *nything*.
Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic /níðingr/, Old Norwegian /níðingr/ (Norwegian /niding/), Old Swedish /nīþinger/ (Swedish /niding/), Danish /nidding/) < the Scandinavian base of Old Icelandic /níð/ nithe n. + the Scandinavian base of Old Icelandic /-ing/ -ing suffix3. Compare Middle High German /nīdinc/, nīdunc envious person (German (arch.) Neiding envious person). Compare also post-classical Latin /nidingus/, nithingus (early 12th cent. in British sources). Compare later niding n., niddering n., and nidderling n.
The Scandinavian words listed above occur frequently in early legal texts, specifically (in certain West Norse legal codes) as an appellation for a person who has committed a crime so heinous that no possible compensation may be made for it. The word was apparently borrowed first into Old English legal terminology (compare quot. lOE1 at sense A. 1: a late copy of a fragment probably composed in the second half of the 10th cent.). With nithing-post/ n., /nithing-stake/ n. at Compounds compare Old Icelandic /níðstöng, in the same sense.
Compare also the late Old English prefixed negative form unnīðing an honest man, a generous man (see quots. below), corresponding to Old Danish /úníþingr/, which occurs on a runic stone (of the early part of the 11th cent.) found in 1905 at Århus in Denmark; compare:
lOE /Glosses to Distichs of Cato/ (Rawl. G.57)in /Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen/ (1906) *117* 25 /Non parcus/ : unniding.
lOE /Anglo-Saxon Chron./ (Laud) anno 1087, Se cyng..bead þæt ælc man þe wære unniðing sceolde cuman to him.
The prefixed form is also attested as a surname in early Middle English, as Ædgarus Vnniðing (1173–4), Philippus Vnnithing (/c/1200).
Some examples may be taken either as a noun complement or as a predicative adjective.
Now arch. and hist.
*A.* n.
*1.* A coward, a villain; a person who breaks the law or a code of honour; an outlaw.
OE /Anglo-Saxon Chron./ (Tiber. B.i) anno 1049, Se cing þa & eall here cwædon Swegen for niðing.
lOE /Laws: Walreaf/ (Rochester) i. 392 Walreaf is niðinges dæde.
lOE William of Malmesbury /Gesta Regum Anglorum/ (1998) I. iv. §306. 548 Iubet ut compatriotas aduocent ad obsidionem uenire, nisi si qui uelint sub nomine Nithing, quod nequam sonat, remanere.
/c/1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon /Brut/ (Calig.) (1978) l. 15168 Wurðe for niðing þe mon þe nule hine sturien.
c/1300 (▸?c1225) /King Horn/ (Cambr.) (1901) 196 (/MED), Þanne spak þe gode kyng; Iwis he nas no Niþing.
▸/c/1426 J. Audelay /Poems/ (1931) 15 (MED), He ys a nyþyng, a noȝt, a negard, þai say.
1853 J. Lingard /Hist. Eng./ (new ed.) II. 79 All freemen from towns and manors were ordered to attend under the penalty of being pronounced ‘nithings’.
1861 C. H. Pearson /Early & Middle Ages Eng./ 164 The rebel was now proclaimed a ‘nithing’.
1876 E. A. Freeman /Hist. Norman Conquest/ V. xxiii. 77 The shameful name of nithing was to be the doom of every man..who failed to obey this summons of his lord.
1906 C. M. Doughty /Dawn in Brit./ I. ii. 70 The king bade..That every wight, who meets him in the path, Him Nithing call.
1956 R. Sutcliff /Shield Ring/ iv. 39 You know how hard it goes with me to play the nything.
†*2.* A mean or niggardly person; a miser. Obs.
a/1225 (▸?c1175) /Poema Morale/ (Lamb.) 230 in R. Morris /Old Eng. Homilies/ (1868) 1st Ser. 173 (/MED), Þas þolieð þa weren maket niþinges [/v.r./ meteniðinges] here.
c/1275 /Kentish Serm. in J. Hall /Select. Early Middle Eng./ (1920) I. 218 (MED), Ure lord god..maked..of þe lechur chaste, of þe niþinge [Fr. /auier/] large.
1340 /Ayenbite/ (1866) 139 (MED), Þe milde..louieþ an hondredziþe more pouerte þanne þe niþing deþ his richesse.
/c/1390 (▸c1350) in C. Horstmann /Minor Poems Vernon MS/ (1892) i. 173 At Domes-day þe meste schennes Hit falleþ vppon þe nyþinges; ffor þei neuermore wole hem schryue Þat þei weore niþinges in heore lyue, But euere heore onswere hit is þus ‘We ȝiuen more þen men ȝiuen vs’.
a/1400 (▸c1303) R. Mannyng /Handlyng Synne/ (Harl.) 6723 (/MED), Þys tale tellyþ oure lorde Ihesu To ryche men..Þat þey ne be no nythyng Of here mete ne of here þyng.
a/1425 (▸?a1300) /Kyng Alisaunder/ (Linc. Inn) 2045 (/MED), Þeo large ȝeueþ; þe nyþyng louriþ.
c/1440 (▸a1350) /Sir Isumbras/ (Thornton) 23 (/MED), Of mete and drynke no nythynge [/v.rr./ noþyng; not sparynge], One lyfe was none so fre.
*B.* adj.
(chiefly in predicative use).
†Mean, niggardly (obs.); cowardly, treacherous.
/a/1325 (▸c1250) /Gen. & Exod./ (1968) l. 3432 He bad him chesen steres-men..Ðe soð-fastnesse lef ben, And ðe niðing giscing flen.
a/1400 (▸a1325) /Cursor Mundi/ (Vesp.) 28741 (/MED), Quat es þat spense mai be Nithing þar þe lauerd es fre. [/a/1425 /Galba/ what nede es þat þe spenser be Nithing of þat þe lord es fre.]
a/1450 (▸a1425) J. Mirk /Instr. Parish Priests/ (Claud.) (1974) 1173 (/MED), Hast thow be hard and nythynge To wythholden any thynge?
1674 J. Ray /N. Countrey Words/ in /Coll. Eng. Words/ 34 /Nithing/, much valuing, sparing of, as Nithing of his pains: i.e. Sparing of his pains.
1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet /Northern Antiq./ I. ix. 219 King William Rufus..sent word to all such as held of him in fee, that those who did not repair to his assistance should be deemed Nithing.
1868 E. A. Freeman /Hist. Norman Conquest/ II. vii. 104 The King and the army publicly declared the murderer to be Nithing.
1943 F. M. Stenton /Anglo-Saxon Eng./ xii. 423 King Edward summoned an assembly of the whole army at Sandwich, which solemnly declared Swein to be ‘nithing’, that is, a man without honour.
Compounds
nithing-post n. /hist./ a post or stake set up as a form of insult to a person.
1847 T. Percy et al. tr. P. H. Mallet /Northern Antiq./ (rev. ed.) 155 Setting up what was called a Nithing-post or Nithing-stake.
1863 J. Sewell /Christian Names/ II. 277 In the North such a pole was called a nithing post.
1923 J. B. Cabell /High Place/ v. 52, I here set up..a nithing post. I turn the post. I turn the eternal banishment against Madame Mélusine.
nithing-stake n. /hist./ = /nithing-post/ n.
1847 T. Percy et al. tr. P. H. Mallet /Northern Antiq./ (rev. ed.) 155 Setting up what was called a Nithing-post or Nithing-stake.
1890 W. Morris in /Eng. Illustr. Mag./ Sept. 894 His head on our hall-gable should be to us a nithing-stake, and a tree of reproach.