Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
Synonym of nithing (“cowardly, dastardly; notoriously evil or wicked; infamous”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: ill-famed, nidering, nithing, disreputable, infamous, nefarious, niddering, notorious
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Synonym of nithing (“a coward, a dastard; a wretch”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: nithing
Antonyms: none provided
History
A variant of nithing, resulting from the letter eth (ð) in Early Middle English niðing in the writings of the English historian William of Malmesbury (c. 1095 – c. 1143) being mistaken for a d followed by a mark of suspension representing a letter that had been omitted as an abbreviation. This led to niðing being wrongly spelled as nidering in early printed versions of his works. The word was later popularized by the Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).
