| 释义 |
ˈniddering, n. and a.
Also nider-.
[Erroneous form of nithing, originating in the early printed text (1596) of William of Malmesbury, by misreading niðing as nid'ing (= nidering). The modern currency of the word is due to Scott.]
A. n. A base coward or wretch. Also in predicative use, passing into adj.
1596in Savile Script. post Bedam 68 Iubet, vt compatriotas aduocent ad obsidionem venire, nisi si qui velint sub nomine Nidering, quod nequam sonat, remanere. 1664Spelman, Niderling seu Nidering. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Niderling, Nidering,..an old English Word signifying a Coward, a sorry hen-hearted Fellow.
1819Scott Ivanhoe xv. note, Threatening to stigmatize those who staid at home as nidering. Ibid. xliii, On pain of being held faithless, man-sworn, and nidering. 1848Lytton Harold x. iv, He who can be called niddering shall never be crowned king! 1864Kingsley Rom. & Teut. 60 Niddering though he may have been called for coming back alive. 1864G. W. Dasent Jest & Earnest (1873) I. 229 Though this was the deed of a niddering, it seems not to have raised the popular feeling against Sweyn so much as it ought. 1893Athenæum 12 Aug. 226/1 It is difficult to be too severe with such a ‘nidering’.
B. adj. Base, cowardly, vile.
1848Lytton Harold iii. ii, Siward can give no niddering council to the king. 1866Blackmore Cradock Nowell liii. (1883) 363 She learned her niddering wrong.
Hence, by further corruption, ˈnidderling. rare.
1664[see prec.]. 1674Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Niderling or Nithing signifies an abject base-minded, false-hearted coward. 1678Phillips Suppl., Niderling, a poor spirited, base, raskally sort of a fellow. 1887Besant Kath. Regina 218 Men who..call that man churl and nidderling and pitiful sneak and cur. 1895Crockett Men of Moss-Hags 165 The men of the broad bonnet were neither cowards nor nidderlings. |