Nn.
/ɛn/, U.S. /ɛn/ I. The letter N (n).† 4. Typography. In form n (without point). = en n. n quadrat n. = en quadrat at en n. n-thick adj. (and adv.) (of a type) having the thickness of an en quadrat (also as adv.). Obsolete.
1.
a. The letter, and the sound it represents.
Π
OE Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 6 Semivocales syndon seofan: f, l, m, n, r, s, x.
c1175 Names of Letters in N. R. Ker Catal. MSS containing Anglo-Saxon (1957) 337 L l el, M m em, N n en, O o, Q quu, R r er, S s es, T te, [etc.].
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 178v (MED) Medicinez bygynnyng by N.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement Introd. p. xix M, N, and R..never lese theyr sounde,..excepte only N, whan he commeth in the thyrde parson plurell of verbes after E.
1582 R. Mulcaster 1st Pt. Elementarie xvii. 110 The consonants be either mutes..or half vowellish as, f.l.m.n.r.s.x.z.
c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (1870) i. iv. §6 The top of the tongue stryking on the inward teeth formes d, l, n, r, s, t, and z.
1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. iii. xii. 367 The reason why this Letter N, and L, and R, are for the most part, both in Greek and Latin immutable.
1710 R. Steele & J. Addison Tatler No. 260. ⁋5 Which would..pronounce the Letters M. or N. and in short, do all the Functions of a Genuine and Natural Nose.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) In the French, the n is frequently a meer Nasal Vowel.
1841 R. G. Latham Eng. Lang. 108 Of the Liquids it may be predicated..that n is allied to the Series t.
1886 T. L. Kington-Oliphant New Eng. I. 257 The n is prefixed, as in neke name for eke name.
1936 Language 12 17 A further example is the velarization of the nasal consonant of Spanish Cinco [θiŋko], which is still felt to be a member of the n phoneme.
1998 A. Dalby Dict. Langs. 127/2 Yue preserves all the middle Chinese syllable-final consonants, p, t, k, m, n, ng.
b. The letter with reference to its shape. Frequently attributive.
Π
1744 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 43 86 Had the last character been designed to express the number ii, the two strokes would have..not been joined both at the top and bottom, in the form of the letter n, as we find them.
1895 Science 21 June 679/1 An excellent chart of the distribution of pressure during an extended squall that occurred on August 27, 1890..showing a sharp N-like double bend at the place of the squall.
1895 J. G. Millais Breath from Veldt v. 39 (caption) The birds alighting in the background are represented in their usual N-shaped formation.
1972 J. Minifie Homesteader viii. 64 But something must be added to prevent sag—either an N-brace or a Z-brace.
1988 Air Enthusiast Sept. 3/1 Both upper and lower wings were of equal span, being separated by a single pair of N-struts.
1993 Sci. News 12 June 383/1 With sensors placed in an N-shaped configuration, the device can even measure a vehicle's ‘footprint’ to determine its speed.
2. In form N or N. (with point). Representing the unspecified name of a person, place, or day to be inserted in a written or spoken text, esp. a prayer, marriage service, etc.On the use of N, and its occasional alternation with M (as in quots. 1662 and 1816), see Notes & Queries (1960) Aug. 286–8. This article discusses various commonly cited theories about the origin of this use, such as the possibility that N or M is a printer's error for the word nomen, and that M is an error for NN (and hence that N or M is intended to signify ‘name or names’).
ΘΠ
the mind > language > naming > name or appellation > [noun] > letter indicating name
NOE
OE Summons to Prayer 1 Þænne gemiltsað þe, , mundum qui regit, ðeoda þrymcyningc.
c1403 in W. G. Henderson Manuale & Processionale Ecclesiæ Eboracensis (1875) p. xvi Here I take ye N. to my wedded wyfe to hald and to haue at bed and at borde.
?a1425 (a1400) Brut (Corpus Cambr.) 311 (MED) We, N and N, sweryn on Goddis body, [etc.].
a1438 Bk. Margery Kempe (1940) i. 9 Sche gan to brewyn & was on of þe grettest brewers in þe town N. a iij ȝer or iiij.
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 16 (MED) At vj of þe belle we gynne oure play In N. town.
1574 in J. H. Burton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1878) 1st Ser. II. 402 I, N, now electit Provest (or Baillie) of the Burgh.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. iv. iii. 190 I N. N. sweare..that I will..giue my Voyce..as God helpe me, &c.
1645 Directory Publique Worship 62 I N. doe take thee N. to be my married wife, and doe..promise and covenant to be a loving and faithfull husband unto thee.
1662 Bk. Common Prayer The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony I publish the banns of marriage between M. of — and N. of —.
1737 R. Challoner Catholick Christian Instructed iii. 15 The Priest..saying, N. come into the Temple of God.
1739 G. Smith Curious Relations (new ed.) II. 309 He who blessed our Father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he blesses also N.N. because he has freely given the Sum—.
1816 J. Austen Emma III. xvii. 315 I do not say when, but perhaps you may guess where;—in the building in which N. takes M. for better, for worse. View more context for this quotation
1980 Alternative Service Bk. 349 Send down the Holy Spirit upon your servant N for the office and work of a deacon in your church.
3. As a distinguishing letter (usually as part of an alphabetical sequence), denoting one of a series of things, a point in a diagram, etc.
Π
1421 in Hist. Ess. Tait 211 Inventarium librorum..M..N..O..P..Q, [etc.].]
1480 W. Caxton Chron. Eng. (printer's signature mark) n3.
1526 Grete Herball cclxiii. sig. Uiiv/2 To staunche vomyte. L... For swownynge. M... For the eyes. N.
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. ii. 28 Fasten these staples..as at NN to the Main-plate.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Centre If the Weights P and Q..revolve about the Point N, so as when P descends, Q ascends, N is said to be the Centre of Motion.
1733 J. Tull Horse-hoing Husbandry xxi. 139 The Plow-Tail consists of the Beam N; the Coulter O [etc.].
1797 Encycl. Brit. XI. 723/1 At N is a dove-tailed piece of brass.
1873 W. W. Skeat Langland's Piers Plowman Pref. p. xlvii I had intended to collate it, denoting it by the letter N.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Aug. 10/1 The two policemen connected with the N division.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 131/1 Repeated cycles brought the cells back to K and L. Curves M and N show first cycle after a fifth rest.
1994 Canad. Workshop Sept. 34/1 Glue and nail M and N onto L with mitre joints at the two front corners.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > printed matter > arrangement or appearance of printed matter > [noun] > units of space in printing
M1683
n quadrat1683
em1793
en1793
1683 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 99 Some [types] are n thick; that is to say, n Quadrat thick, viz. half so thick as the Body is high.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Quadrat There are Quadrats of divers Sizes, as m Quadrats, n Quadrats, &c. which are respectively of the Dimensions of such Letters.
1755 J. Smith Printer's Gram. 67 Figures require a Founder's particular care to cast them exactly n-thick, and to a true parallel, not driving out at head or foot.
1824 J. Johnson Typographia II. iii. 65 An m-quadrat is the square of the letter to whatever fount it may belong; an n-quadrat is half that size.
1824 J. Johnson Typographia II. 138 We always indent an m and an n, or even two m's.
1863 Daily News 10 Aug. Compositors are allowed 60 cents per thousand m's (not reckoning by n's as in England).
5. Grammar (chiefly with reference to Germanic languages). In form n (without point), frequently italicized. n-declension n. the declension of nouns and adjectives in which the stem ends in n. n-stem n. a stem ending in n of a class of nouns or adjectives. n-plural n. a plural form ending in n in a class of nouns.
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1843 Proc. Philol. Soc. (1844) 1 73 The n declension..makes its appearance in many of the Indo-European languages, besides the Gothic.
1866 R. Morris Ayenbite p. xxxv They are remnants of the n declension.
1886 T. Le M. Douse Introd. Gothic p. x Consonant Declensions; n-stems.
1894 V. Henry Short Compar. Gram. Eng. & German iii. ii. 236 The n-plural requires no explanation in the masculines which still end in -e... Thus we have regularly: knabe knabe-n, rabe rabe-n, löwe löwe-n.
1908 J. Wright Old Eng. Gram. xi. 191 The neuter n-stems had originally the same endings as the masculine and feminine except in the acc. sing. and the nom. acc. plural.
1914 T. Diekhoff German Lang. i. 195 (heading) Paradigm of weak masculines, or n-stems.
a1938 E. Prokosch Compar. German Gram. (1939) 250 §84 The reason for this relative uniformity of the n-declension lies..in the fact that the vowels of the endings coalesce more or less with the suffix vowel of the vocalic stems.
1991 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 36 429 Chapters Five to Nine describe the PGmc i-stems, u-stems, n-stems, radical stems, and further consonantal stems, respectively.
II. Symbolic uses (written without a following point).
6. [ < post-classical Latin N (see note below).]
a. Chiefly Mathematics. In form n or occasionally N, and often italicized. An unspecified or variable (usually integral) number. Cf. nth adj. [In the following quot. N is used to denote an unknown quantity, like the modern x, but it is unclear why Xylander chose N. One possibility is that it represents Latin nota symbol, since Xylander's N replaces a sigma in the Greek manuscript which may represent Greek σημεῖον symbol.]
1575 G. Xylander tr. Diophantus Arithmetica i. 1 Cui nulla harum proprietatum obtigit, sed constat multitudine unitatum, Rationis expers uocatur: nota eius N.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [noun] > particular qualities > definite or indefinite
certainc1374
quantitya1425
hundred1469
standard1545
'n1828
N1858
known1877
1684 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 14 579 From a number propos'd subtract a Unit, let that be Numerator, and to it add a Unit, let that be Denominator, and call that fraction N.
1789 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 79 187 When n is a given quantity, and n − ½ not a whole affirmative number.
1858 I. Todhunter Algebra for Schools xl. §554 An infinite series is said to be convergent when the sum of the first n terms cannot numerically exceed some finite quantity, however great n may be.
1903 B. Russell Princ. Math. xxxvii. 310 Even an n-dimensional series of such terms..is still denumerable.
1956 F. Pohl Alternating Currents (1966) 85 Spaceships ran from point to point in n-dimensional hyperspace.
1974 Observer 1 Sept. (Colour Suppl.) 10/1 (advt.) This is where the standby duty crews wait,..ready for the off. N-number of aircrew will always be there—24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
b. In form n, italicized. [Compare German nfach n-fold (B. Riemann 1854, in Abhandl. der Königl. Ges. der Wissensch. zu Göttingen (1868) 13 134).] Used in place of bi-, di-, tri-, etc., in words, to denote an unspecified or variable factor or number, as n-adic, n-ary, n-fold adjs.; n-ic n., n-tuple n. and adj.
Π
1873 G. Salmon Treat. Higher Plane Curves (ed. 2) Contents p. xi Number of points which determine a n-ic.
1878 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 1 83 In any compound an arbitarily selected group of m n-adic atoms may be replaced by a group of n m-adic atoms.
1880 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 3 2 It will be convenient to designate as an n-fold polyhedroid the n-dimensional figure which is bounded by (n − 1)-fold flat (not curved) figures.
1880 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 3 322 Each of the equations..indicates an n-tuple point at A.
1886 Proc. London Math. Soc. 17 171 (title) On ternary and n-ary reciprocants.
1940 E. T. Bell Devel. Math. xx. 401 An m-ary n-ic..is a homogeneous polynomial, with arbitrary constant coefficients, of degree n in m independent variables.
1954 I. M. Copi Symbolic Logic ix. 306 A dyadic or triadic or n-adic relation.
1972 H. B. Enderton Math. Introd. Logic i. 50 An n-ary connective symbol combines with n wffs [sc. well-formed formulae] to produce a new wff.
1993 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 38 96 Each lexical entry is an n-tuple (where n is the number of relevant components).
c. Physics and Chemistry. In form n or N, usually italicized. Denoting the principal quantum number of an electron in an atom, which determines the energy of its orbit (to the first order) and can take the values 1, 2, 3,… (corresponding to increasing energy). In molecular spectroscopy n was introduced to denote the vibrational quantum number of a diatomic molecule (now usually replaced by v), and later (as N) the total angular momentum, apart from spin, of diatomic and polyatomic molecules (see also quot. 1962).
ΚΠ
1914 N. Bohr in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 27 507 According to Balmer, Rydberg, and Ritz the frequency of the lines in the line-spectrum of an element can be expressed by the formula ν = fr(n1) − fs(n2), where n1 and n2 are whole numbers and f1, f2,…a series of functions of n, which can be expressed by fr(n) = (K/n2)ϕr(n), where K is a universal constant and ϕ a function which for large values of n approaches the value unity.]
1914 N. Bohr in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 27 508 We shall assume that this spectrum is emitted by a system possessing a series of stationary states in which, corresponding to the nth state, the energy, omitting the arbitrary constant, is given by Λn = −hK/n2.
1914 N. Bohr in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 27 509 For n = 1, corresponding to the normal state of the atom, we get [etc.].
1920 Sci. Abstr. A. 23 423 If the nuclei are related in a quasi-elastic manner to the equilibrium positions, then the energy values for a diatomic non-rotating molecule are the same as for a Planck oscillator, namely: E = nhω, where n denotes the quantum number for the atomic oscillation.
1926 E. C. Kemble et al. in Bull. National Res. Council No. 57. 5 Some discrepancies in minor details of notation will be found from chapter to chapter in this report. The following major items, however, have been followed consistently:..Vibrational quantum number for diatomic molecule: n.
1951 D. Bohm Quantum Theory xv. 348 N = the principal quantum number..defined as one plus the total number of nodal surfaces in the wave function.
1953 Jrnl. Optical Soc. Amer. 43 425/1 [Report of Sub-committee of the Joint Commission for Spectroscopy.] Notation for diatomic molecules... N. Total angular momentum of the electrons and nuclei, excluding spin... Replaces former K.
1962 P. J. Durrant & B. Durrant Introd. Adv. Inorg. Chem. vii. 207 The angular momentum due to the rotation of the [diatomic] molecule about an axis at right angles to the internuclear axis is denoted by N.
1966 J. W. T. Spinks tr. G. Herzberg Molecular Spectra & Molecular Struct. III. i. 73 For 3Σ states each rotational level except the one with N = 0 is split into three component levels..corresponding to J = N + 1, N, N − 1, respectively.
1994 Nature 25 Aug. 593/1 They expect that they will be able to do this only if the electrons are relatively far from the nucleus, meaning that they will have a principal quantum number, n, that is relatively large.
d. Genetics. In form n, usually italicized. Representing the haploid (gametic) chromosome number of a eukaryotic organism; 2n n. twice the haploid number; the diploid number. Also: the zygotic or somatic chromosome number generally (whether this is the diploid number or some other multiple of the haploid or basic number, as in a polyploid series). Cf. X n. 3i. Frequently attributive, usually in algebraic expressions designating a genome, cell, or individual having the stated chromosome number.
ΚΠ
1906 E. B. Wilson in Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 3 23 If n be the unreduced number of chromosomes in the female, the matured eggs in all cases contain half this number (n/ 2).]
1916 Jrnl. Genetics 5 281 The x or n number of chromosomes [in Drosophila ampelophila] is four.
1924 Science 4 July 19/2 Counts of chromosomes in their dividing pollen mother-cells demonstrated a deficiency of one of the largest chromosomes which has been shown to be the extra chromosome present in our (2n + 1) mutant known as Rolled.
1939 E. W. Sinnott & L. C. Dunn Princ. Genetics (ed. 3) xiv. 321 A case in mosses (Bryum) where an autotetraploid (2n gametophyte, 4n sporophyte) showed gigas characters.
1983 J. R. S. Fincham Genetics vi. 165 The European cultivated varieties [of potato] are all tetraploid with 4n = 32, though many varieties cultivated by the Amerindians of the Andean region..are diploid with 2n = 16.
1997 Euphytica 96 345 Fusion experiments were performed between diploid (2n = 2x = 24) or tetraploid (2n = 4x = 48) potato genotypes.
7. In form N.
a. Chemistry. The element nitrogen.In quot. 1814 Berzelius is using the letter to symbolize the radical of nitrogen (‘nitricum’) because he believed nitrogen (there called azote) to be an oxide rather than an element.
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the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > metals > specific elements > nitrogen > [noun]
alkaligen1788
azote1791
nitrogen1791
septon1795
N1814
1814 tr. J. J. Berzelius in Ann. Philos. 3 61 Nitricum, radicle of azote (N).
1844 G. Fownes Man. Elem. Chem. 248 Nitrate of baryta. BaO, NO5.
1894 H. E. Roscoe & C. Schorlemmer Treat. Chem. I. 504 The formation of hyponitrites from derivatives of hydroxylamine shows that in these salts the oxygen atom must be between the nitrogen atom and that of the metal: N.O.K.
1914 Chem. Abstr. 8 3059 The conversion of caseinogen into casein by enzyme action is accompanied by the cleavage of N, P, and Ca.
1953 A. G. E. Pearse Histochem. v. 83 Collagen fibres are composed of fully extended chains of C and N atoms held together by lateral bonds.
1971 Arable Farmer Feb. 72/3 Crops get 75–100 units of N, while at the same time, the correct balance of P and K is maintained.
1990 Jrnl. Exper. Bot. 41 941/1 It is known that remobilization of N from senescing tissues can provide much of the N used for growth.
b. Chemistry and Biochemistry. In the names of compounds, denoting substitution at a nitrogen atom; so N-linked, N-substituted adjs.
ΚΠ
1900 Chemist & Druggist 57 846/1 It is therefore probable that laudanosine is d-N-methyl-tetra-hydro-papaverine.
1921 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 33 193 (heading) Therapeutic action of N-phenylglycineamide-p-arsonic acid (tryparsamide) upon experimental infections of Trypanosoma rhodesiense.
1938 M. L. Wolfrom in H. Gilman Org. Chem. II. xvi. 1438 This principle of establishing ring structures by detecting the presence of an N-acetyl group.
1956 Nature 10 Mar. 477/2 N-substituted anhydrides should not show the chain effect.
1976 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 251 2005 The intact glycoprotein has a single N-linked heterosaccharide.
1998 Daily Tel. 19 Aug. 14/3 This time the team first mixed the dung with a chemical agent called PTB (for N-phenacylthiazolium bromide).
c. Biochemistry. N-terminal adj. and n., (designating) the end of a polypeptide or protein molecule where it is the NH2— group of the terminal amino acid that is unattached to another amino acid by a peptide bond; so N-terminus.
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1955 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 18 588 Only valine was present as N-terminal group in the five human haemoglobins studied.
1957 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 79 4682 The molecule contains two kinds of polypeptide chains, with respect to the N-termini.
1970 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 221 668 (title) Amino acid composition and N-terminus of Pseudomonas cytochrome oxidase.
1987 Nature 19 Nov. 266/2 A polypeptide of 206 amino acids which is myristylated at the N-terminal.
1999 Arch. Biochem. & Biophysics 367 161 The tight binding folate site is..located on the N-terminal domain of the protein.
8. Chemistry. In form N, (rare) n. = normal adj. 6a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > physical chemistry > solutions > [adjective] > concentration > of or relating to a concentration
N1863
normal1987
1863 F. Sutton Syst. Handbk. Volumetric Anal. 165 Free iodine is..very readily estimated by solution in iodide of potassium, and titration with N/10 hyposulphite.
1906 Amer. Chem. Jrnl. 35 511 A saturated solution of silver chloride..is only about 0·00001N.
1931 J. C. Ware Analyt. Chem. iv. 137 Test the solubility of a portion of the precipitate..with 2 cc. 6n HNO3.
1970 M. D. Hawkins Calculations in Volumetric & Gravimetric Anal. 11. 35 The solution was titrated against 0·0908 n potassium thiocyanate.
1992 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 114 316/1 Dissolved in 5-mL of acetone and titrated with 8 N Jones' reagent at 0°C.
9. Physical Chemistry. In form N. [Proposed in French by J. Perrin 1909, in Ann. de Chim. et de Physique 18 16.] The Avogadro constant.
ΚΠ
1910 F. Soddy tr. J. Perrin Brownian Movement 10 Avogadro's proposition is then equivalent to the following: ‘Any two gram-molecules contain the same number of molecules.’ This invariable number N is a universal constant, which may appropriately be designated Avogadro's Constant.
1933 A. W. Barton Text Bk. Heat ix. 201 Dividing both sides by N, the number of actual molecules in 1 gram-molecule of the gas, called Avogadro's number, we have [etc.].
1962 P. J. Durrant & B. Durrant Introd. Adv. Inorg. Chem. xi. 303 If both sides of the equation are multiplied by the molecular weight M and divided by the density ρ, (k − 1)M/(k + 2)ρ = 4/ 3πNα = PM where N is Avogadro's number and PM is known as the molar polarisation.
1988 R. P. Wayne Princ. Applic. Photochem. i. 2 The excitation energy per mole is obtained by multiplying this molecular excitation number by N, Avogadro's number.
10. Physics. In form N. Designating the series of X-ray emission lines obtained by exciting the atoms of any particular element which are of longer wavelength than the M-series (cf. M n. 11a), and arise from electron transitions to the atomic orbit of fourth lowest energy, of principal quantum number 4 (the N-shell). N-electron n. an electron in the N-shell.
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1911 C. G. Barkla in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 22 408 From the similarity of the behaviour of all the elements we must then admit..the possibility of further series M, N, &c.
1923 H. L. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines viii. 505 Our relativistic formula of the fine-structure..furnishes us with a principle of sub-division for the multiplicity of M- and N-lines.
1948 R. E. Lapp & H. L. Andrews Nucl. Radiation Physics v. 74 In the heavier elements such as tungsten (Z = 74) the N shell is saturated with 32 electrons.
1967 G. L. Clark Handbk. X-rays i. 7 At still longer wavelengths M- and N-series lines have been measured only for heavier elements.
1968 Physical Rev. 166 944/1 Radiationless transitions are favored in low-Z elements and always dominate in the M, N, and higher shells for the ordinary Auger effect.
1970 E. P. Bertin Princ. & Pract. X-ray Spectrometr. Anal. i. 27 An electron having just enough energy to expel, say, an LII electron can also expel LIII, M, and N electrons, but not LI or K electrons.
1995 Jrnl. Mod. Optics 42 1766 The spectral amplitude produced by an N-electron bunch in a storage ring is reviewed.
11. Radiology. In form n, italicized. A unit of neutron dosage (see quot. 1942). disused.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > treatment by radiation > [noun] > dose or dosage > unit of
rad1918
N1942
gray1975
1942 P. C. Aebersold & J. H. Lawrence in Ann. Rev. Physiol. 4 36 In this laboratory, a standard Victoreen r-meter with a 100 r condenser-chamber is used. The unit of fast neutron exposure is arbitrarily taken as that amount which produces the same reading with this meter as a roentgen of x-ray. Thus an n of fast neutrons produces inside this 100 r Victoreen thimble chamber the same amount of ionization as is produced by an r of x-rays.
1948 E. Paterson in R. Paterson Treatm. of Malignant Dis. by Radium & X-Rays xxxiii. 593 The n unit has fulfilled a useful function, however, in demonstrating differences in effect between X- or gamma-radiation and neutrons when ratios of the dosage required to produce effects are compared.
12. Physics. In form N. = Newton n. 5.
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the world > matter > physics > mechanics > force > [noun] > units of force
pound-weight1824
pound-force1865
gram weight1871
dyne1873
kilodyne1873
poundal1875
Gramme1884
Newton1904
kilogram force1905
gram force1909
kip1915
N1951
lbf1961
ounce-force1961
ton-force1961
1951 Symbols, Signs & Abbrev. (Royal Soc. Symbols Comm.) 14/2 Newton... N.
1973 D. Kleppner & R. J. Kolenkow Introd. Mech. ii. 84 Since g = 9·8 m/s2, the weight of 1 kg mass is 9·8 N.
1984 D. C. Giancoli Gen. Physics iv. 67 Experiments indicate that a 3.0g locust exerts an average force of about 0.45 N against the floor [when jumping].
1992 Behavioural Pharmacol. 3 5/2 The middle key required a force of approximately 0.17 N to produce a 60-ms feedback tone.
13. Particle Physics. In form N. Baryon number (now denoted by B). disused.
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1955 Physical Rev. 97 1388/1 The law of conservation of baryons..states that n, the number of baryons minus the number of antibaryons, must remain unchanged.]
1958 Physical Rev. 112 640/1 It is at this stage that we first explicitly meet S and N, the baryon number.
1962 A. Ramakrishnan Elem. Particles & Cosmic Rays vi. 226 The interesting relation between strangeness S, the hypercharge Y and the baryon number N.
1978 T. D. Lee in Ta-You Wu Festschrift 89 Nontopological solitons. The necessary condition is that there should be a conservation law of some quantum numbers, such as baryon number N, or charge Q.
III. Simple abbreviations.
14. In form N. A substitution in speech and text for various names (forename or surname).
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c1400 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Brussels) (1940) Introd. f. 75v After the Kalenderes of the reuerent clerkes, frere J. Somer and frere N. Lenne.
1571 J. Leslie Diary 19 Aug. (1855) III. 142 In my pacquet there was ane letter to myself, with ane memoire for ordour taking with the Queenis servandis, viȝ., that Mr N. Vingȝet suld remayne with myself.
1769 T. Gray Let. 26 Jan. in Corr. (1971) III. 1054 That Trin: Hall Lodge would be vacant..to receive Mrs. N: & you.
1863 V. Penny Employments of Women 486 Mrs. N. Smith was recently elected mayoress in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
1904 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 5 348 The idea..was the result of a conversation with Mr. N. J. Lennes.
1991 Classical Rev. 41 502 N. worries about the absence of evidence.
15. Of various English words.
a. In form N. North.Recorded earliest in N.N.E. n., adj., and adv. at Initialisms 2.
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the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > North > [adjective] > part or place
northOE
northland1488
N1513
north country1673
1513 E. Howard Let. 12 Apr. in Lett. & Papers relating to War with France (Navy Rec. Soc.) (1897) 122 The Monday last, the wynd roosse soon to N.N.E. that we weer feyn [to] set us in with the Traad.
1615 W. Adams Log-bk. 21 May in Trans. Japan Soc. London (1916) 13 210 From 4 to 8—1 l[eague]—n.
1708 London Gaz. No. 4418/3 The Wind was this Morning..at six, at N., at eight at N.E.
1855 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea (ed. 2) 258 The wind is reported as prevailing..from N. 3 times.
1922 Mineral. Abstr. 1 396 The rocks of Mansjö Mtn. (611/ 2°N., 151/ 3°E.), Sweden.
1990 Mountain Nov. 11/1 The route..broke left, following a long diagonal couloir to the N Ridge.
b. Grammar. In form n. (a) neuter; (b) noun.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical notation or symbol > [noun] > figure > for unknown or variable quantity
X1660
N1690
1690 W. Clare Compleat Syst. Gram. Eng. & Lat. 49/1 There are some Adjectives which are varyed both by two words in the Nominative case and also by three endings..for example, Nom. Inermis M.F. Inerme N.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Abacus, n. s. [Lat.] 1. A counting-table.
1852 S. R. Riggs Gram. & Dict. Dakota Lang. 135/1 La-kó-ta, n. Dakota.]
1895 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia 243 Panhin, panchin, n., a small pan.
1930 J. F. Mountford Kennedy's Rev. Lat. Primer §43 So also: m. latrō, latrōn-, robber; f. ratiō, ratiōn-, reason..; n. carmen, carmin-, song.
1994 Time 4 July 77 Arkansas wedding cake n. corn bread.
c. In form N. New (chiefly in place names).
ΘΠ
the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > newness or novelty > [noun] > that which is new
neweOE
newness1690
N1732
spick and span1758
1732 D. Dunbar Let. 25 Aug. in Cal. State Papers Colonial Ser. (1939) 201 The undertaker for the masting has and does carry on a greatr [sic] lumber trade than any man in N. Engld.
1758 G. G. Beekman Let. 16 Feb. in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) I. 323 Some Gentelman say that the N. York Factors Raised the Price of seed.
1838 in Southwestern Hist. Q. (1926) 30 147 Sent my packet..to pop in the post office at N. Orleans.
1853 E. E. Stuart Let. 26 Jan. in R. Stuart et al. Stuart Lett. (1961) I. 461 N. Year's Day with us was very pleasant.
1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Aug. (Business Suppl.) 17/5 Wholesale cash prices Wednesday..Coconut oil N. Orleans lb.
d. Chess. In form N (without point). Knight, esp. in the algebraic notation system (the initialism K is used for king); (formerly) spec. the queen's knight, the king's knight.
ΚΠ
1842 Chess Exemplified 4 The Queen's Knight (generally represented by a Nag's head) is denoted by N [and the King's Knight by H].
1843 Chess Short-hand 5 The pieces I represent as follows... The King's Knight by N for Nag... The Queen's Knight by M for Mare.
1935 Australasian Chess Rev. 7 Dec. 348 From now on, the A.C.R. will use the symbol N for Knight... The symbol ‘N’ is expressly allowed by the British version of the ‘Laws of Chess’, and is already used extensively in chess publications and chess columns, and of course in Forsyth notation.
1948 Reshevsky on Chess (1960) 4/1 The Steinitz Defense, which gives Black a cramped game. Modern theory favours 3..P-QR3; 4 B-R4, N-B3 etc.
1994 A. Soltis Inner Game of Chess iii. 79 After 1 Nxf7, it's easy to see that if the knight is taken, 2 Bxe6 wins.
e. Usually in form n, italicized. = normal adj. 6c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [adjective] > organic structure > carbon chain
normal1869
N1889
1889 G. M'Gowan tr. A. Bernthsen Text-bk. Org. Chem. i. 44 From petroleum have been separated..normal Heptane, n-Octane, n-Nonane, and n-Decane.
1938 L. F. Fieser in H. Gilman Org. Chem. I. ii. 53 The conversion of n-butylcyclopentane into o-ethyltoluene on dehydrogenation with palladium charcoal.
1971 N. L. Allinger et al. Org. Chem. iii. 28 One isomer, isobutane, has one carbon atom which is bound to three other carbons, and there is no such carbon atom in the other isomer, n-butane.
1990 EMBO Jrnl. 9 2891/2 Similar results were obtained when KCl was substituted by NMG (n-methylglucamine)-malate.
f. In form N. Nationalist. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > Irish politics > [noun] > principles or policies > adherents or supporters of
unionist1799
West Briton1805
repealer1829
nationalist1849
Home Ruler1867
loyalist1885
Little Irelander1900
devolutionist1905
N1906
partitionist1921
1906 N.E.D. at N N. = Nationalist.
1938 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) 4 Oct. 13/2 Parties are signified by the following abbreviations:—L., Labour; N., Nationalist; I., Independent. [etc.].
g. In form N (without point). Neutral: (a) on an electrical plug, etc. (cf. neutral adj. 10c); (b) on the selector mechanism in a car with automatic transmission (cf. neutral n. 7).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > [noun] > conductor
conductor1745
collector1777
saddle1839
lead1881
neutral1890
N1937
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > parts and equipment of motor vehicles > [noun] > transmission > specific gear
top1906
top-drive1909
overdrive1921
underdrive1929
N1937
park1963
1937 W. S. Ibbetson Electr. Installation Rules 51 Three-pin socket outlet. Terminal N to ‘middle wire’ or ‘neutral’.
1951 W. K. Toboldt et al. Automatic Transmissions i. 15 The selector may be set in any one of five positions, namely, parking (P), neutral (N), low (L), drive (D), and reverse (R).
1967 Motor 18 Nov. 9/3 Place the car in N and idle the engine for some minutes.
1993 Which? Jan. 16/3 Position the conductors to their terminals—brown to the live (L) terminal, blue to the neutral (N) terminal, and green/yellow to the earth (E) terminal.
h. Physics. In form n (without point; also N). Negative (in n-channel, n-region, etc.: see also n-type adj.).
ΚΠ
1946 J. A. Becker et al. in Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers 65 714/1 The theoretical and experimental physicists have established that there are two types of electronic semiconductors which can be called N and P type.
1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors ii. 21 The two parts [of the crystal] are called the n and p regions respectively.
1970 Single Sideband for Radio Amateur (Amer. Radio Relay League) (ed. 5) vii. 177/1 The 3N141 is an N-channel silicon, depletion-type, dual insulated-gate FET.
1986 W. L. Schweber Integrated Circuits for Computers v. 153 They are designed to use either positive electric fields (p-channel) or negative electric fields (n-channel) to control the flow of electrons within the transistor.
i. Science. In form n. As prefix, forming symbols of units of measurement: = nano- comb. form. For initialisms see Initialisms 3.
ΚΠ
1947 Compt. Rend. de la 14me Conf. (Union Internat. de Chimie) 115 The following prefixes to abbreviations for the names of units should be used to indicate the specified multiples or sub-multiples of these units:..n nano- 10−9 ×.
j. In form N (without point). Nuclear.
Π
1958 Oxf. Mail 19 July 1/2 Beirut battle group is part of N-weapon division... U.S. paratroopers..equipped with tactical nuclear weapons.
1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 20 June 6/1 (heading) Reindeer N-levels shock Norway.
1993 N.Y. Times 21 June a16/1 The department's budget includes $240 million to maintain the N-Reactor, which produced plutonium for 30 years before closing in the mid-1980's.
k. In form N (no point; also ₦). Naira, the principal monetary unit of Nigeria (formerly £N, Nigerian pound).
Π
1960 Brit. Exports & Exchange Restrictions (Swiss Bank Corporation) May 108 1 Nigerian Pound = 20 Shillings. 1£N = 1£stg.
1973 Times 1 Oct. (Nigeria Suppl.) p. xi/3 Each member would be paid N120 a month.
1976 Daily Times (Lagos) 12 July 1/3 A large quantity of hospital equipment estimated at over ₦2 million is now rusting away at the Agbarho General Hospital.
1988 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 57 107 From independence in 1960, Nigeria continued to use the pound... This was replaced in April 1973 with the Naira (₦).
Compounds
N-rays n. (originally †n-rays) [ < from the initial letter of the name of the University of Nancy] Physics (now historical) a form of radiation supposedly discovered in 1903 by R. Blondlot of the University of Nancy, but later found to be spurious. N¹-rays (originally n₁-rays) were another supposed form of radiation that were said to have the opposite effect to N-rays.
ΚΠ
1903 Nature 4 June 119/2 The name n-rays is suggested for these radiations.
1903 Nature 15 Oct. 578/1 Several papers on the so-called N rays discovered by M. Blondlot are printed in the Journal de Physique for August.
1904 Nature 10 Mar. 455/2 The n1-rays, described in the previous note, have exactly the opposite effect.
1906 Nature 1 Mar. 413/1 It would be interesting to know whether anyone has obtained success in repeating the latest experiment designed to show the objective reality of the n-rays.
1925 A. Huxley Let. 25 Jan. (1969) 241 You remember the unanimously favourable verdict in favour of N rays?
1941 W. Seabrook Doctor Wood xvii. 234 According to Blondlot, the rays were given off spontaneously by many metals. A piece of paper, very feebly illuminated, could be used as a detector, for..when the N rays fell upon the eye they increased its ability to see objects in a nearly dark room.
1973 Nature 12 Oct. 344/2 The ‘anomalous’ water belongs to the category exemplified by the N rays of Blondlot.
1994 New Scientist 2 Apr. 38 This is not the first time that what Huizenga calls ‘pathological science’ has appeared in the scientific community, and he quotes other instances, such as the ‘N-ray’ phenomenon in the first decade of this century.
Initialisms
Many of the terms given here without points are also frequently used with points, and vice versa. Less commonly, variation between upper- and lower-case letters may occur where the initialism is not a proper name. I1. (For initialisms in which N stands for ‘north’ see Initialisms 2.)
NA n. chiefly U.S. = Narcotics Anonymous n.
ΚΠ
1954 Sat. Evening Post 7 Aug. 49/1 Newcomers are advised to make their withdrawal first, then come to N.A. and learn to live without drugs.
1988 U. Padel & P. Stevenson Insiders (BNC) 46 She said sh'e give me something about it on Sunday at NA.
1995 New Yorker 30 Jan. 83/2 Gately personally is not hot on NA: so many relapses and unhumble returns.
N.A. n. U.S. (now rare) National Academician; National Academy.
ΚΠ
1828 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 207 The N.A. would do very well in the catalogue of their own exhibitions, to distinguish the works of its members.
1883 Harper's Mag. Nov. 843/2 He enjoys..the unusual distinction of being an N.A. and an A.R.A.
1924 Who's Who in Amer. 1706/1 Inness, George, Jr., painter;..A.N.A., 1895 N.A., 1899.
1949 Los Angeles Times 11 July ii. 4/2 Hugo Ballin, N.A.
NA n. Biochemistry noradrenaline.
ΚΠ
1956 U. S. von Euler Noradrenaline i. 3 The recognition of noradrenaline (NA) as a naturally occurring substance of high biological significance is of fairly late date.
1974 V. B. Mountcastle et al. Med. Physiol. (ed. 13) I. viii. 276/1 Disulfiram..inhibits the enzyme dopamine-β-hydroxylase and thus prevents the synthesis of NA from dopa.
1991 Pulse 6 Apr. 74/2 The current first (and urgent) choice of treatment is amitriptyline, an old and ‘dirty’ drug which appears..to be more effective than newer ‘clean’ pure NA or 5-HT re-uptake inhibitors.
N/A n. (also N.A., n.a.) not applicable.
Π
1947 Suppl. Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 9 123 (table) Total..78..n.a...61. [Note] n.a. = not applicable.
1977 Public Opinion Q. 41 88 (table) Change Presidential popularity... 1953... N.A.
2001 Hull Daily Mail (Electronic ed.) 28 May (table) [Tide times.] Hull, Albert Dock: Tonight, N/A. Tomorrow, 0213, 1430.
NA n. Optics numerical aperture.
ΚΠ
1885 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 5 209 Apertures are thus obtained ranging from 0.77 to 1.644 N.A. in flint, and 1.512 N.A. in crown.
1925 Nature 18 July 118/2 The N.A. of any objective used could not exceed about 1·27.
1977 J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 113 Total magnification on a print or transparency should not exceed 1000 times the NA of the objective.
1992 Microelectronics Jrnl. 23 243/1 The stepper has a lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.6.
NAACP n. U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
ΚΠ
1910 Crisis Nov. 12 (heading) The N.A.A.C.P.
1974 Black Panther 16 Mar. 4/4 The NAACP filed its first suit attacking segregation and discrimination in education on March 15, 1933, against the University of North Carolina.
1992 Baltimore Jewish Times (Nexis) 25 Dec. Michael Johnson..condemned leaders of groups such as the NAACP and BLEWS as ‘muppets’.
NAAS n. British (now historical) National Agricultural Advisory Service (replaced by ADAS in 1971).
ΚΠ
1948 Sci. News 6 48 The N.A.A.S., which is the only body giving advice on the whole of agriculture.
1971 Arable Farmer Feb. 70/1 A nationwide series recently completed by NAAS, of 77 experiments testing nitrogen, phosphate and potash rates for spring barley.
1983 New Phytologist 95 249 A dry ashing method based on that of NAAS (1968) was chosen for all trace element analyses.
NAB n. British (now historical) = National Assistance Board n. at national adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1953 B. Abel-Smith Reform of Social Security 27 Malingering is very hard to detect, as the N.A.B. is constantly aware.
1969 Listener 12 June 834/3 In Northborough..mothers were not allowed to collect the father's weekly contribution..through the NAB.
NAC n. Canadian National Action Committee (on the Status of Women).
ΚΠ
1977 Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 2 Apr. 11 She helped found the National Action Committee for the Status of Women (NAC).
1995 Freedom: Canada's Guide for Disabled Spring 16/2 Individuals from 3 to 75 years of age with a variety of disabilities..take part in NAC's programs.
NACA n. U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (created by Congress in 1915 and forming the basis of NASA when it was established in 1958).
ΚΠ
1922 Aviation 13 Nov. 665/1 (heading) N.A.C.A. For National Air Policy.
1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon i. 17 Vaguely coordinated by something called NACA—the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
1998 P. E. Ceruzzi Hist. Mod. Computing i. 38 Following NACA's advice, ERA modified the machine's instruction set to include an ‘interrupt’ facility.
NAD n. Biochemistry nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.
ΚΠ
1960 Science 25 Nov. 1549/3 They [sc. the Enzyme Commission of the International Union of Biochemistry] have..decided..that the enzyme be known by its actual chemical name, nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide, which may be abbreviated to NAD.
1975 Jrnl. Clin. Microbiol. 1 90/2 The satellite growth of Haemophilus species around a colony of Staphylococcus can be attributed not only to NAD but also to catalase, which is produced by staphylococci.
1985 Sci. Amer. Oct. 74/2 (caption) The NAD molecule fits precisely into a cleft on the protein surface.
NADH n. (also NADH2) Biochemistry nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (reduced).
ΚΠ
1961 Biochem. Jrnl. 81 38/2 Initial attempts to demonstrate NAD-linked dehydrogenases were hindered by the presence in crude extracts of a NADH oxidase.
1964 W. G. Smith Allergy & Tissue Metabolism viii. 85 The breakdown of glucose-6-phosphate to acetyl CoA involves a sequence of reactions which are coupled to the formation of NADH2 from NAD.
1974 J. B. Finean et al. Membranes & Cellular Functions v. 75 In some tissues..cytoplasmic NADH is an important source of fuel for mitochondrial ATP synthesis.
1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) vii. 350 Electron transport begins when the hydride ion is removed from NADH to regenerate NAD+.
NADP n. Biochemistry nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate.
ΚΠ
1960 Science 25 Nov. 1549/31 The recommended form ‘nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate’ (NADP) avoids both these objections.
1970 R. W. McGilvery Biochemistry xvi. 319 In general, NADP is used as an electron carrier for reductive syntheses, such as the formation of fatty acids.., whereas NAD is used more in the processes of energy production.
1988 BioFactors 1 37/1 The structure of NADP implies, in addition to the hydrogen transfer potential, two activated groups.
NADPH n. (also NADPH2) Biochemistry nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (reduced).
ΚΠ
1961 Nature 2 Dec. 821/1 The rate of α-oxoglutarate formation was determined by following the rate of oxidation of NADPH (reduced nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide phosphate).
1964 W. G. Smith Allergy & Tissue Metabolism viii. 85 Supplies of NADPH2 can be made available by shunting some of the available glucose-6-phosphate into reactions which form ribulose-5-phosphate.
1992 C. A. Smith & E. J. Wood Biosynthesis ix. 207 Haem is cleaved to give biliverdin... Subsequently, biliverdin is converted to bilirubin by reduction with NADPH.
NAHT n. British National Association of Head Teachers.
ΚΠ
1919 London Head Teachers' Assoc. Pamphlet May f. 2v Delegates were elected to represent the Association at the N.A.H.T. conference.
1996 Independent 19 Jan. 9/2 The NAHT also says it should be allowed to refuse to take in violent pupils excluded from other schools.
NAM n. = Non-Aligned Movement n. at non-aligned adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1980 Pacific Affairs 53 56 The U.N...suddenly began to spring back to life under pressure from the Nonaligned Movement (NAM).
1984 Round Table Jan. 5 The final communiqué..explicitly reaffirmed the positions adopted..in the NAM New Delhi summit declaration.
1992 Hindu 13 Sept. (Delhi ed.) 16/3 That Mr Suharto is a practical leader can be seen in the manner in which he tried to forge a consensus over Bosnia-Herzegovina at the recently concluded NAM summit.
NAO n. British = National Audit Office n. at national adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1984 Hansard Commons 24 May (Written Answers) 447 At present the London staff of the NAO is located in some 28 offices.
1998 Independent 5 Aug. i. 4/1 Sir John Boun, head of the NAO, found that most of the blunders were due to untrained clerical staff calculating figures by hand.
NASD n. U.S. Stock Market National Association of Securities Dealers.
ΚΠ
1940 Business Week 23 Nov. 58/2 Much time and expense would have been saved if all dealers in the United States had agreed to be bound by a single uniform set of standards. And that is expected to be made possible after the Board of Governors of the N.A.S.D...approves the recently drafted ‘Uniform Practice Standards’.
1993 Louis Rukeyser's Wall St. Feb. 12/2 If the branch manager is not cooperative, report your complaint to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD).
NASUWT n. (formerly also †NAS/UWT) British National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers.
ΚΠ
1976 Times Educ. Suppl. 23 Apr. 4/2 The union reasserted their determination to ‘take all steps necessary to ensure that NAS/UWT members receive appropriate support when faced with disciplinary problems in their schools’.
1998 Teacher Mar. 3/3 The union welcomes the decision of the NASUWT to accept NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy's invitation to co-operate with the NUT.
NAV n. Finance = net asset value n. at net adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1966 Jrnl. Business 39 134/1 (table) Size [of a mutual fund] (NAV).
1973 Jrnl. Finance 28 518 Β is, of course, the familiar ‘beta’ coefficient; in this case relating NAV to market movements.
1993 Independent 20 Jan. 21/1 The weight of money flowing into investment trust shares every month has also helped to reduce the discounts at which trust shares typically trade to their net asset values (NAV).
N.B. n. New Brunswick.
Π
1824 J. C. B. Hart St. Ursula's Convent p. viii List of subscribers... Black, John Jr. Esq... St. Johns, N. B.
1856 E. B. Kelly Autobiogr. xi. 88 I..crossed in the ferry-boat, and made my way down to Fredericton, N.B.
1929 F. W. Wallace Rec. Canad. Shipping 2 Abyssinia, ship, 833 tons. Built 1868, St. John, N.B.
1993 Canad. Geographic Jan. 59 (caption) The tranquil village of Baker Brook, N.B., owes its name to James Baker, a feisty American lumberman who declared the region a republic during the War of 1812.
NBA n. U.S. National Basketball Association.
ΚΠ
1949 Minneapolis Tribune 1 Nov. (Sport section) 2/7 (heading) 8 NBA Teams Play Tonight... The new 17-team National Basketball association swings intro production tonight.
1992 Basketball Digest Apr. 34/2 He was a marquee guy in the league. You thought NBA and his was one of the first names that came to mind.
NBA n. British = Net Book Agreement n. at net book n.1 Compounds.
ΚΠ
1966 R. E. Barker et al. Bks. are Different Index 934/1 Net Book Agreement (N.B.A.).
1995 Guardian 18 Jan. i. 15/2 Yesterday's decision marks a setback for the European Commission which ruled in 1988 that the NBA broke European Union competition laws.
NBC n. (in the United States) National Broadcasting Company (formerly Corporation).
ΚΠ
1926 Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 13 Nov. 8/2 Monday, November 15... National Broadcasting Co... Inauguration Program..WEEL Boston..NBC Inaugural (4 hours).
1950 G. Marx Let. 7 Nov. in G. Marx et al. Groucho Lett. (1967) 75 I heard you on the NBC radio show.
1969 Listener 13 Nov. 667/1 The Duke of Edinburgh ‘met the press’ recently on America's NBC network.
1986 Telegraph (Brisbane) 4 Aug. 31/2 For the fifth straight year, NBC led the networks with the most nominations.
1998 Entertainm. Weekly 30 Jan. 49/1 NBC is looking for a show with some buzz around it.
NBG n. (also n.b.g.) colloquial no bloody good (cf. N.G. n.).
ΚΠ
1903 R. Bedford True Eyes xxxiv. 195 So see here—this place is N.B.G., Billy, me man. Let's do what I say—sell everythin' an' clear.
1956 A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Attitudes ii. iii. 369 Those Barkers were n.b.g.: I saw quite a lot of their dishonesty at Melpham.
1973 G. Mitchell Murder of Busy Lizzie iii. 42 Bang goes our reason for coming here... She said it was N.B.G. and that seems to be just about right.
2001 Times (Nexis) 21 Apr. (Features section) I avoided Nobu..because the name reminded me of an expression that you never hear any more: NBG—No Bloody Good.
NBT n. Biochemistry the dye nitroblue tetrazolium.
ΚΠ
1967 Jrnl. Histochem. & Cytochem. 15 1/1 Thiocarbonyl nitro-BT, TC-NBT.
1996 Inflammation 20 282 The reduction of nitro-blue tetrazolium (NBT) with formazan by oxygen radicals..has been used to measure the respiratory burst of leukocytes after stimulation with..pro-inflammatory agents.
NC n. network computer.
Π
1995 Guardian 19 Oct. (OnLine section) 6/1 The PC industry is doomed. The future is an appliance called a Network Computer (NC) or Web TV.
1998 Chicago Tribune 5 Oct. iv. 5/4 The network computer, or NC, was oversold in its early days.
NC n. (also N/C) (a) numerical control; (b) (as adj.) numerically controlled.
Π
1957 Amer. Machinist 6 May 167/3 Even when production quantities warrant other methods, NC can lower toolmaking costs.
1961 Amer. Machinist 9 Jan. 53/1 N/C machines in demand.
1991 Mech. Engin. Sept. 15/1 (advt.) Up to a staggering 90% reduction in power consumption for machining centers, NC lathes, milling machines, [etc.].
1993 R. J. Pond Introd. Engin. Technol. (ed. 2) ix. 260 With early NC, punched tapes were made to control machines such as lathes, milling machines, and drills.
NCAA n. U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
ΚΠ
1912 N.Y. Times 26 Dec. 10/5 Annual meeting of the N.C.A.A. to be held to-morrow at Hotel Astor... The National Collegiate Athletic association will..discuss the problems which confront the amateur athlete.
1959 C. M. Wilson Magnificent Scufflers 16 By current AAU rules the pindown time is one second; in collegiate wrestling (NCAA rules) it is two seconds.
1999 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 5 Aug. 47/1 Classified as a dietary supplement, andro is..banned by the Olympics, the NCAA, the NFL, and the men's and women's tennis tours.
NCAM n. (also N-CAM) Molecular Biology neural cell adhesion molecule.
ΚΠ
1980 R. Bertolotti et al. in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77 4931/1 The aggregation of nerve cells appears to require the function of a nerve-specific surface protein now called neural cell adhesion molecule or N-CAM.
1992 New Scientist 5 Dec. 31/2 The growing tips of axons carry neural cell adhesion molecules (NCAMs) which bind to CAMs on other cells and that the binding stimulates axonal growth.
2000 Jrnl. Vet. Med. Sci. 62 1253 NCAM immunoreactivity on the surface of the epithelium was observed to be decreased significantly six days after nerve transection.
NCB n. British (now historical) National Coal Board (in 1987 renamed British Coal).
ΚΠ
1948 Coal Dec. 12/2 There are many complaints and criticisms of the N.C.B. It would be surprising if there were not.
1963 Times 7 Feb. 13/4 It is essential not to impair the work at the N.C.B. which has made it possible to raise productivity four times above the national average.
1991 K. Laybourn Brit. Trade Unionism 186 On 14 March 1984 the High Court gave the National Coal Board an injunction against flying pickets, though the NCB chose not to use it.
NCC n. British (now historical) Nature Conservancy Council.
ΚΠ
1975 Jrnl. Appl. Ecol. 12 995 A former director of the Nature Conservancy..describes the new structure in which conservation (NCC) and research (ITE) are bound to go their own ways.
1989 Holiday Which? Sept. 177/1 The ability of bodies such as the NCC to protect the countryside depends on how much cash the government gives them.
1995 Guardian 9 Jan. 13/2 The NCC notified the site, and in 1993 it was formally recognised as internationally important and listed under the Ramsar Convention.
NCO n. Military non-commissioned officer.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > leader or commander > officer or soldier of rank > [noun] > non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned1648
staff officer1702
staff officer1702
NCO1803
non-com1834
mate1890
unteroffizier1917
1803–10 Orderly Bks. of Manx Fencibles in Yn Lioar Manninagh (1890) I. 152 Any party, consisting of 6 men or upwards, must have a N.C.O...appointed to go with them.
1883 Army Regulations II. 102 Report on conviction of N.C.O. by civil power.
1901 C. W. Barnard MS Let. 31 Dec. (National Army Museum) 3 The officers & NCO mess lent us sufficient plates etc.
1992 M. Urban Big Boys' Rules iv. 41 As a young NCO he was posted from the Parachute Regiment to the surveillance unit.
NCR n. no carbon required, (the proprietary name for) paper chemically treated so that the pressure of writing or typing alone produces duplicate copies without the use of carbon paper between sheets.
Π
1955 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 12 July tm104/1 NCR no carbon required paper.
1956 Brit. Printer Mar. 42/1 Since its appearance on the US market some 18 months ago, ncr paper..is now being manufactured in this country. The initials ncr represent not only the name of the manufacturers—the National Cash Register Co Ltd—but the particular characteristics of the paper (No Carbon Required).
1967 C. Wilson in G. Wills & R. Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 46 Copies of print-outs are obtained with carbon paper or NCR paper. The latter (‘no carbon required’) has a chemically coated surface activated by percussion.
1995 Freedom: Canada's Guide for Disabled Spring 50/1 The old system of note-taking is for a hearing student to take notes on NCR paper, and pass the duplicate set along to the hard-of-hearing classmate.
NC-17 n. U.S. no children under 17 (a film classification).
ΚΠ
1990 N.Y. Times 4 Sept. c14/4 Because of these pressures on film makers, many critics have suggested either adding another rating between R and X or changing the X label to something more neutral like AO (adults only) or NC 17 (no children under 17).
1998 Esquire Mar. 76/2 A part that included extensive, NC-17-rated lesbian sex.
n.d. n. (also N.D.) (of a book) no date.
Π
1834 William Pickering's Catal. Manuscripts & Bks. 19 Angler's Guide... Lond. n.d.
1879 Blackwell's Catal. No. i. 10 Chappell's Old English Ditties.. n.d.
1917 T. J. Wise Bibliogr. Brontë Family vi. 225 Museum of Brontë Relics... A Descriptive Catalogue. (N.D., but circa 1890).
1959 Notes & Queries July 292/1 A Chronicle History of Portsmouth by Henry Slight (3d. edit., n.p., n.d.).
1988 Nature 3 Nov. 26/3 Others are described as ‘Forthcoming 1987’ or just ‘n.d.’!
NDB n. Aeronautics non-directional (radio) beacon.
ΚΠ
1960 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. IV. 231/2 Radio stations erected specifically for use with the ADF are known as NDB (non-directional beacons or radiophares).
1990 Pilot Oct. 72 (advt.) Why train at a minor airfield when you can learn at London's third International Airport with full ATC, ILS, NDB and radar.
N.D.C. n. British (now historical) = National Defence Contribution n. at national adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1937 Times 1 June 17/5 The present N.D.C. scheme..imposes a high rate of tax on excess profits only.
1939 Times 4 Jan. 17/2 The figures in each case are struck after provisions for income-tax and N.D.C.
1943 Econ. Jrnl. 53 14 It is assumed, however, that E.P.T. and N.D.C. will be abolished after the war.
NDE n. = near-death experience n. at near-death adj. 1.
Π
1978 Theta 6 No. 4. 1/2 Over one hundred of these near death experiences (NDEs) have been reported.
1981 Anabiosis July 4 There are two types of NDE. The first consists of deathbed visions... In the second type of NDE a person, not necessarily ill, is suddenly brought into a state on the verge of physical death.
1998 Village Voice (N.Y.) 16 June 139/1 Polls say that between 8 million and 22 million Americans claim to have had an NDE.
NDP n. Canadian New Democratic Party; cf. New Democrat n. 1.
ΚΠ
1961 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. 4 Aug. 17/3 The NDP organizers produced mimeographed songsheets complete with Tommy Douglas lyrics.
1995 Pacific Current Mar. 6/2 The NDP can afford a fully delegated convention in October for its leadership selection process.
NDPer n. a member or supporter of the NDP.
Π
1967 Canad. Jrnl. Econ. & Polit. Sci. 33 549 Were the NDP a ‘protest’ party, one would expect to find an inordinate degree of issue orientation among NDPers.
1993 Toronto Life July 23/2 Where else..will demoralized NDPers place their vote?
NDV n. Veterinary Medicine Newcastle disease virus.
ΚΠ
1942 Austral. Jrnl. Exper. Biol. 20 81 Doyle's strain of Newcastle disease virus (N.D.V.) was propagated in chick embryos by Burnet and Ferry.
1998 Avian Pathol. 27 541 The greatest risk of NDV transmission from cormorants to poultry probably is during autumn migration.
NEA n. U.S. National Education Association.
ΚΠ
1887 Jrnl. Proc. & Addr. National Educ. Assoc. U.S. 1886 427 The Art Department of the N.E.A. respectfully requests the U.S. Senate to authorize publication of extra copies for distribution by the Bureau of Education.
1927 Amer. Mercury May 4/1 The haut monde of American pedagogy, the National Education Association (N.E.A.).
1993 Newsweek 6 Sept. 21/2 The National Education Association (NEA), which has quietly become the largest and, arguably, the strongest labor union in the country.
NEA n. U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.
ΚΠ
1970 Dance Mag. June 40/1 The residency program of the NEA aims to bring companies into communities for a week.
1995 Village Voice (N.Y.) 7 Mar. 81/2 Her 1994 program budget at the NEA was around $7 million.
NEAT n. non-exercise activity thermogenesis (or non-exercise-associated thermogenesis), the energy dissipated as heat by a person during minor physical activity (such as fidgeting or shivering) that does not involve a large expenditure of energy and is not perceived as exercise.
Π
1999 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 8 Jan. a23/1 At the end of the study, everyone had gained weight. But the less weight people gained, the more calories they were burning through what the researchers dubbed NEAT, for nonexercise activity thermogenesis.
2005 Independent 28 Jan. 18/3 They have low Neat, which means they have a biological need to sit more.
2013 J. M. Jakicic in J. M. Rippe Lifestyle Med. xlii. 530/1 The term nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is used to describe energy expenditure that does not result from sleeping, eating, or structured exercise.
NEB n. British (now historical) National Enterprise Board, a board established in 1975 to invest in and operate state-owned businesses (merged with the National Research Development Corporation in 1981 to form the British Technology Group).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [noun] > political economy > an economic policy > specific policies and actions
protection1719
co-operation1817
tariff-reform1859
monetary union1866
border protection1875
rationalization1875
tariffication1892
tariffade1904
inflationism1919
NEP1923
war communism1928
voodoo economics1930
substantivism1931
sterilization1938
deficit spending1941
deficit financing1943
tax-and-spend1956
indexation1960
stop-go1964
incomes policy1965
scala mobile1965
quantitative easing1966
jawboning1969
Nixonomics1969
developmentalism1970
degrowth1971
inflation-proofing1973
NEB1973
dollarization1982
fiscal engineering1982
Rogernomics1985
1973 J. Hart et al. National Enterprise Board: Green Paper (Labour Party) i. 12 The NEB would ‘hold’ all existing government shares in joint public–private firms.
1990 Econ. Jrnl. 100 343 Appraisal of the NEB needs to consider the costs of market imperfections relative to imperfections of government intervention.
NEB n. New English Bible.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > Bible, Scripture > text > edition > [noun] > other
interlineary1659
vinegar Bible1834
the open Bible1837
Treacle Bible1899
NEB1961
1961 Theology May 175 There is no need to give an account here of the principles and methods of the N.E.B.
1980 G. B. Caird Lang. & Imagery of Bible i. iv. 97 Does the prophet (Isa. 13:5) foresee the devastation of the whole land (AV, NEB) or of the whole earth (JB)?
1991 Lit. & Theol. 5 324 Whereas the NEB had ‘a low murmuring sound’ the REB has ‘a faint murmuring sound’.
NEC n. British National Executive Committee (or Council), usually of a trade union or the Labour Party.
ΚΠ
1943 F. J. Mansfield Gentlemen, the Press! vi. 113 The N.E.C. itself recommended that the number of members should be eight.
1950 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 44 863 The Member confronted by expulsion had the right to be heard by the N.E.C.
1997 Daily Tel. 30 Sept. 23/1 Yesterday evening's result..saw Ken Livingstone, the Labour Left-winger, snatch the NEC seat on which Mr Mandelson had hubristically placed his reservation card.
N.E.D. n. New English Dictionary (the original title of the Oxford English Dictionary).
Π
1887 R. Morris Specim. Early Eng. (ed. 2) i. 372/1 Amad, pp. distracted... See N.E.D.
1904 A. S. Palmer in R. C. Trench On Study of Words (rev. ed.) 175 Dr. Murray decides in favour of this explanation, of unknown authorship, and so spurious, uncanonical,—N.E.D.
1975 Notes & Queries for Somerset & Dorset Sept. 127 The single reference cited under lug-fall in the N.E.D...takes the definition a little further.
NEDC n. (also NED) British (now historical) National Economic Development Council (abolished in 1992); cf. Ned n.3, Neddy n.3
ΚΠ
1962 Daily Tel. 9 Feb. 12/2 The NEDC will not be a collection of amateurs or mere theorists.
1962 Daily Tel. 7 Mar. 12/2 The collective wisdom of ‘NED’.
1974 Industr. & Labor Relations Rev. 28 19/1 The stablishment of NEDC on which the TUC alone was allowed to represent the workers..stimulated this movement.
1990 D. Kavanagh Thatcherism & Brit. Politics (ed. 2) iii. 92 The CBI's ability to speak boldly for free enterprise is limited by its close involvement in such corporate bodies as NEDC (National Economic and Development Council).
NERC n. British Natural Environment Research Council.
ΚΠ
1964 Science 11 Dec. 1449/3 The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) takes over the geological survey and becomes heir of such organizations as the Development Commission (marine biology and fisheries research) and the Nature Conservancy.
1982 Jrnl. Animal Ecol. 51 222 The study has been supported by a NERC research grant between 1978 and 1981.
2000 New Scientist 25 Nov. 100/2 (advt.) The School of Sciences requires a graduate Research Assistant for a project on geophilomorph centipedes funded by NERC.
NF n. British National Front.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > British politics > British party politics > [noun] > other British parties
digger1649
levellers1762
country party1763
court-party1763
mountain1829
fourth party1880
S.D.F.1893
S.D.P.1908
Bloomsbury gang1910
National Front1937
NF1970
1970 Facts (National Front) i. 3/3 (caption) N.F. supports the Springboks.
1984 S. Townsend Growing Pains Adrian Mole 22 Ms. Fossington-Gore shouted back, ‘You're wearing a symbol of fascism, you nasty NF lout.’
1996 J. King Football Factory (1997) 177 Blokes who said they were NF but understood none of the politics..just thought the NF badge made them hard.
NF n. Medicine neurofibromatosis.
ΚΠ
1978 Jrnl. Pediatrics 92 925 The peculiar distribution of leukemia by cell type and the number of cases observed in the United States indicate that the risk of childhood leukemia in NF is increased.
1990 New Scientist 21 July 21/2 NF was mistakenly thought to cause Elephant Man's disease because it disfigures its victims.
2000 Jrnl. Neurosurg. 92 342 Approximately 100 cases of segmental neurofibromatosis (NF5) have been reported in the recent literature.
NF n. now historical new franc (French nouveau franc), a monetary unit (now usually simply called the franc) issued in France following monetary reform in 1959 to replace the old franc (the new franc being valued at one hundred old francs).
ΚΠ
1960 Brit. Exports & Exchange Restrictions (Swiss Bank Corporation) May 55 Only spare parts from O.E.E.C. countries may be obtained through import certificates when the value is less than NF. 5,000.
1971 A. Diment Think Inc. ii. 28 I..added three $100 bills and two NF 1000 notes to the wad.
NF n. rare (chiefly in N.E.D.) Norman French.
ΚΠ
1888 N.E.D. at Capron1 NF dial. form of chaperon hood.
1907 N.E.D. at Poke sb.1 The mod. Sc. pouk, north Eng. pook, with (u, ū), may correspond to NF. dial. pouque beside poque.
NFC n. U.S. National Football Conference.
ΚΠ
1970 N.Y. Times 29 May 21/4 Season announced yesterday by the National football League... L.A., Minnesota, Giants... N.F.C.
1998 Indianapolis Star 25 Jan. b1/2 He's led the Packers to..three NFC Central Division titles and a victory in last year's Super Bowl.
NFC n. near field communication, a radio technology allowing smartphones and other devices to establish wireless radio communication with each other over a short range (typically a few inches) in order to transfer data.
ΚΠ
2002 Business Wire (Nexis) 4 Sept. Royal Philips Electronics..and Sony Corporation today announced that they will jointly develop a new near field radio-frequency communication technology, ‘Near Field Communication’ (NFC).
2010 Computer Weekly 19 Oct. 18/2 Alternatively, micro-SD cards with NFC-enabled chips can be inserted into mobile phones.
2012 Sunday Times (Nexis) 15 Apr. (In Gear section) 2 The NFC chip tells the phone the machine's location. The phone then sends the information to a central office, with full payment card details and vehicle registration number.
NFL n. U.S. National Football League.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > American football > [noun] > league
NFL1946
1946 Encycl. Brit. IX. 486 c/1 Under Carr, the N.F.L. was developed from obscurity into a national enterprise.
1972 J. Mosedale Football i. 6 Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns..was the greatest ground-gainer in NFL history.
1995 J. Shreeve Neandertal Enigma (1996) i. 5 A healthy Neandertal male could lift an average NFL linebacker over his head and throw him through the goalposts.
NFP n. natural family planning (cf. natural adj. 7f).
Π
1973 W. A. Uricchio & M. K. Williams Proc. Res. Conf. Nat. Family Planning xxi. 299 Teachers are neede to help individuals understand the methods and also to give them a secure feeling about the whole concept of NFP.
1993 Guardian 10 Aug. ii. 19/4 Many doctors remain profoundly ignorant about and prejudiced against NFP.
NFS n. British (now historical) National Fire Service.
ΚΠ
1942 Daily Mirror 25 Feb. 4/5 It will be necessary to enrol men under 41 for whole-time duties in the National Fire Service... Men over 25 when they registered will still be given an opportunity to express preference for the NFS.
1947 Sci. News 4 47 Four days after she disappeared a fire broke out in the cellar of the Baptist Church and a passing police officer called the N.F.S.
1992 S. Holloway Courage High! xxiv. 195/1 In the lower reaches of the Thames, NFS men worked day and night, hosing out the mud to keep a way clear for the great concrete ‘caissons’ which were to form the Mulberry Harbours.
NFS n. Computing (a proprietary name for) an application (Network File System) that allows the user of a network to access and operate shared files, peripheral resources, and utilities on remote computers as if they were stored locally and part of the user's directory.
ΚΠ
1985 Computerworld 17 June 63/1 The NFS allows transparent sharing of files, peripheral resources and utilities.
1989 B. Nowicki Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 1094. 1 The NFS protocol is designed to be portable across different machines, operating systems, network architectures, and transport protocols.
1996 Web Developer Nov. 12/3 You'll find a minimal configuration for conquering the two biggest problems easily solved at the router: packet spoofing and NFS hijacking.
NSFW adj. colloquial (originally and chiefly in electronic communications) not safe (also suitable) for work; used to indicate that a post, message, link to a web page, etc., contains explicit sexual material or other adult-oriented content; (hence more generally) that may cause offence; obscene; explicit; risqué.
ΚΠ
2002 Re: You gotta see this Pic in alt.music.dave-matthews (Usenet newsgroup) 12 Feb. People do use the internet at work... It is customary to add ‘Not Safe for Work’ or NSFW to the post to warn people.
2002 in alt.music.ween (Usenet newsgroup) 20 Feb. (subject line) This girl was made for you! NSFW.
2010 Guardian 5 June (Guide Suppl.) 32/2 After cats, illegal downloading and NSFW images, a favourite on the internet is the funny list.
2015 @Cosmopolitan 6 Sept. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Kansas State marching band apologizes for NSFW routine that kinda looked like a blowjob.
NFT n. British National Film Theatre.
ΚΠ
1965 New Statesman 19 Mar. 462/3 Ozu..made some 54 films, of which only nine have ever been seen in London and those only by assiduous patrons of the NFT.
1992 Independent 1 Feb. (Mag.) 8 (advt.) And this month at the NFT, we have an enchanting review of fairy-tales on film.
NFT n. Neurology = neurofibrillary tangle n. at neurofibrillary adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1980 Science 18 Apr. 297 The neurofibrillary tangle (NFT), since its original description by Alzheimer in 1907, has been considered one of the principal microscopic features seen in the brains of individuals with senile dementia.
1991 Lancet 2 Mar. 559/1 The olfactory bulb itself contains substantial NFTs.
2001 Acta Neuropathol. 101 211 Patients over 60 years of age occasionally presented with..a low incidence of AD-type neurofibrillary tangles (NFT).
NFT n. a non-fungible token (see non-fungible token n. at non-fungible adj. Compounds).
Π
2017 www.github.com 24 Sept. (forum post, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, 7 Dec. 2017) I bounced between three separate ideas for naming: ‘token’.., ‘asset’.., and ‘NFT’ which I used in the prose, but which is incredibly awkward in the API calls.
2021 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 6 Apr. a6/1 I've been trying to make sense of NFTs, those digital creations called ‘non-fungible tokens’ that can sell for millions of dollars.
NFU n. National Farmers' Union.
Π
1910 Farmer & Stockbreeder 28 Nov. 2142/1 Why not establish a branch of the N.F.U. or a county association?
1951 R. G. Baumhoff Damned Missouri Valley 88 The NFU strongly favors a Missouri Valley Authority. The big stockmen..have their own associations, more like trade groups than like a farmers' assembly.
1992 Farmers Guardian 7 Aug. 12/8 West Midlands NFU is setting up Rural Watch networks in all five of its counties.
N.G. n. (also n.g.) colloquial no go; no good (the current use; cf. NBG n.).
ΚΠ
1838 Boston Morning Post 25 June They then went together to the plaintiff's to try to settle, but it was n.g.
1840 Daily Pennant (St. Louis) 20 June The bells, boys, and engines tried to get up a fire last night, but it was N.G.
1909 M. Glass Potash & Perlmutter (1911) xv. 346 Just because a sucker like Sol Klinger knocks a feller, Abe, that ain't saying the feller's N. G.
1972 ‘L. Egan’ Paper Chase (1973) x. 160 So that little ride on the merry-go-round was n.g.
NGC n. [initialism < New General Catalogue] Astronomy used with following numeral to denote any celestial object so numbered in the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars by J. L. E. Dreyer, published in 1888, and in the revised NGC 2000.0, published in 1988.
ΚΠ
1890 A. M. Clerke Syst. Stars xvi. 235 M 35 = N.G.C. 2168. Nebulae and clusters are throughout this volume distinguished, when among the 103 catalogued by him, by Messier's well-known numbers, otherwise by Dreyer's in the New General Catalogue.
1936 E. Hubble Realm of Nebulæ vi. 125 The known members of the ‘local group’ are the galactic system with the Magellanic Clouds as its two companions; M31 with M32 and NGC 205 as its companions; M33, NGC 6822 and IC 1613.
1997 Esquire Mar. 64/3 I knew a fat Gray from the NGC 104 globular star cluster in the southern constellation of Tucana who went on the fen-phen diet and spontaneously melted.
NGF n. Physiology nerve growth factor.
ΚΠ
1961 Q. Rev. Biol. 36 106/1 (caption) Precipitin reaction between the nerve-growth factor (N.G.F.) and its antiserum.
1990 European Jrnl. Neurosci. 2 650/1 Nerve growth factor (NGF) was the first..neurotrophic factor isolated and completely characterized.
NGO n. non-governmental organization; cf. quango n.
ΘΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > types of association, society, or organization > [noun] > other types of association, society, or organization
invisible college1647
rota1660
working party1744
free association1761
working committee1821
Ethical Society1822
bar association1824
league1846
congress1870
tiger1874
cult1875
Daughters of the American Revolution1890
community group1892
housing association1898
working party1902
development agency1910
affinity group1915
propaganda machine1916
funding body1922
collective1925
Ku-Klux1930
network1946
NGO1946
production brigade1950
umbrella organization1950
plantation1956
think-tank1958
think group1961
team1990
1946 Rev. Rep. Comm. Arrangem. Consultation Non-Govt. Org. in U.N. Econ. & Social Council Official Rec. (1947) 1st Year: 2nd Sess. 320/1 It shall be known as the ‘Committee on Arrangements for Consultation with Non-Governmental Organizations’ (short title: ‘Council NGO Committee’).
1952 Internat. Organization 6 604 The Council approved..the method of handling communications from NGO's containing complaints against governments.
2009 J. McKay & M. Hilton in N. Crowson et al. NGOs in Contemp. Brit. Introd. 3 Although the term NGO..has long been used to describe non-state actors in international development, the NGO is a breed that is increasingly being identified in the sphere of national politics.
N.H. n. New Hampshire.
Π
1815 N. Amer. Rev. July 292 William Plumer, Jun. of Epping, N.H. is preparing for publication, a History of the late war between the United States and Great-Britain.
1884 W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) II. 328 Sent Special L of G to Mrs James Barnard, Nashua, N.H.
1901 Boston Morning Jrnl. 8/1 Irish potatoes..are called Irish from the Irish, who came in 1719, settled Londonderry, N.H., and were required to pay quit rent to the amount of a peck of potatoes.
1991 Seattle Times 24 Nov. c7/2 She..won a GS at Waterville Valley, N.H.
NHBC n. British National House-building Council.
ΚΠ
1973 Explanatory Notes House Purchasers Agreement (NHBC) (single sheet) Report defects to the vendor not the NHBC.
1998 Housing & Planning Year Bk. 1999 288/1 During construction of a new home NHBC carries out spot checks and on completion it provides the householder with a 10 year insurance policy called Buildmark.
NHI n. British (now historical) National Health Insurance.
ΚΠ
1934 W. J. Foster & F. G. Taylor National Health Insurance xiv. 191 Enter on debit side of Cash Book and credit side of N.H.I. Fund Current Account.
1958 Spectator 20 June 806/1 A doctor..wrote on what he called unjustified claims by his patients upon the N.H.I.
1989 V. R. Godwin in M. G. Field Success & Crisis in National Health Syst. ix. 268 France is noted for combining NHI with fee-for-service private practice in the ambulatory care sector.
NHI n. U.S. Police slang no humans involved, an informal classification assigned to a crime giving it low priority because its victim is regarded as having a low social status.
ΚΠ
1973 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight ix. 124 Herb hated the drunk wagon. ‘Niggers and white garbage,’ he'd repeat over and over when something made him mad which was most of the time. And he called the wagon job ‘the N.H.I. detail’. When you asked him what that stood for he'd say ‘No Humans Involved’, and then he let out that donkey bray of his.
1989 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 14 May Police expend little sympathy on criminal-to-criminal mayhem. An acronym drifts unwritten about the system; those are NHI crimes—No Human Involved.
1992 Ms. Sept. 69/4 Five San Diego artists say ‘NHI’ is police jargon for crimes against ‘inhuman’ people: prostitutes, informants, and drug users.
2000 Irish Times (Nexis) 4 Mar. ‘NHI’, said the LA guy, ‘means “no humans involved.”’ The term, he said, is accepted police and CP industry jargon for when one drug dealer kills another.
NHL n. National Hockey League (consisting of ice hockey teams from the United States and Canada).
ΚΠ
1917 Toronto Daily Star 7 Dec. 28/2 Steve Vair has applied to President Frank Calder, of the N. H. L., for a job as referee in Toronto.
1925 N.Y. Times 14 Dec. 29/6 Fourteen players comprised the squad..for New York's first professional hockey match under N.H.L. supervision.
1945 N.Y. Times 14 Jan. (Sports section) 2/5 The Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League today announced the signing of Bill Thoms... Thoms..broke into the NHL with Toronto in the 1932–33 season.
1998 Chicago Tribune 27 Aug. iv. 3/1 Tallon played against Hull in the NHL and was traded to the Hawks from Vancouver to be Hull's centerman when Hull decided to jump to the World Hockey League.
NI n. British = national insurance n.
ΚΠ
1966 Econ. Jrnl. 76 172 The cost of N.I. contributions varies with the number of earners in the household.
a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 637 Kenneth replied that he would like to pay for the whole thing by a ninepenny increase in the N.I. contribution.
1991 Which? Apr. 218/1 When you contract out through a personal plan, part of your NI contributions go toward a personal pension instead of into the NI fund.
N.I.C. n. British (now historical) the National Incomes Commission, a body which formerly gave advice to the British government on economic policy (cf. Nicky n.2).
ΚΠ
1962 Daily Tel. 27 July 24/5 He saw the N.I.C. primarily as a means of ‘educating public opinion’.
1978 World Politics 30 550 When the pause ended in April 1962, the government created the National Incomes Commission (N.I.C.) to deal with wage increases.
1997 D. Kavanagh Reordering Brit. Politics 40 The unions would have nothing to do with the NIC and it was soon wound up.
NIC n. (also Nic) British National Insurance contribution (or contributions).
ΚΠ
1982 Financial Times 13 Jan. 21/1 The 100 per cent self-deduction of ESSP from employers' national insurance contributions (NIC) is as a result of much representation by employer organisations.
1986 Economist 14 June 27/1 Employers' NICs create an incentive to switch to part-timers because firms pay no tax at all on workers who earn less than £38 a week.
1991 Times 7 Nov. 8/8 Nics are not payable by employees on earnings above £405 a week.
NIC n. (also with pronunciation /nɪk/) (also Nic) newly industrialized (or industrializing) country.
/nɪk/) (also Nic) newly industrialized (or industrializing) country.ΘΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > a land or country > [noun] > newly industrialized country
NIC1978
1978 Economist 10 June 84/1 The newly industrialising countries—those with a growing industrial base geared to exports—have an acronym, Nics.
1980 Sci. Amer. Sept. 58/3 The N.I.C. and OPEC countries have about a fifth of the population of the developing countries other than China.
1990 Current Hist. Mar. 131/2 The group would..establish a formal link between the industrialized Group of Seven and Asia's newly industrialized countries (NIC's).
NIF n. Immunology neutrophil immobilizing factor, neutrophil inhibitory factor.
ΚΠ
1973 Jrnl. Immunol. 111 938/1 A neutrophil-immobilizing factor (NIF) has been derived from..leukocytes.
1983 Immunol. 48 81/2 Each of the two NIFs was recovered as a single peak of optical density... The amino-terminated amino acid sequence..of each of the purified NIF polypeptides was determined.
1994 New Scientist 16 Apr. 10/2 The compound called neutrophil inhibitory factor (NIF), blocks the action of neutrophils, the white blood cells which trigger the immune system at sites of infection or tissue damage.
NIF n. Pharmacology nifedipine.
ΚΠ
1982 Jrnl. Cardiovascular Pharmacol. 4 Suppl. 3. 325/1 Nifedipine (NIF) and verapamil (VER) are calcium antagonist drugs.
1991 Amer. Jrnl. Kidney Dis. 17 565/2 Low concentrations of the calcium channel blocker NIF..were continuously infused.
NIH n. (in the United States) National Institutes of Health (originally National Institute of Health).
ΚΠ
1945 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 72 167 We included..a group of 22 dermatophytes obtained from the American Type Culture collection (ATC), through the courtesy of the National Institute of Health (NIH).
1962 Science 14 Dec. 1233/1 Already N.I.H. has become the hub of an enormous research effort.
1989 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 May 1205/2 There is undue emphasis at NIH on managing science.
1999 G. Bear Darwin's Radio lxxii. 316 The AMA and most of the side branches of the NIH have withdrawn their support.
NIMH n. (in the United States) National Institute of Mental Health.
ΚΠ
1953 Psychiatry 16 92 (heading) Dr. Robert Cohen heads clinical research at N.I.M.H.
1970 L. Harmon in D. H. Efron Psychotomimetic Drugs 349 So for Dan's N.I.M.H. hospitality (T'was psychotomimetically hip) Great thanks for new lights on mentality And a most unforgettable TRIP.
1995 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 July 41/2 The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste has charged that some NIMH research is a misuse of taxpayer's money.
NiMH n. nickel-metal hydride; chiefly in NiMH battery.
Π
1989 Jrnl. Electronic Engin. 26 60/2 The NiMH battery, which adopts a hydrogen-storing material in the negative electrode and nickel oxide in the positive electrode, is hermetically sealed just like a NiCd battery.
1998 Wired Nov. 63/2 The camera's included NiMH battery conquers another bane of digital photography—frequent trips to the store for new cells.
NIR n. [ < Russian NIR, initialism < naučno-issledovatel′skaja rabota scientific research work] now historical a colour television system developed in the Soviet Union, similar to SECAM.
ΚΠ
1966 Economist 12 Feb. 628 This Russian-designed system offers the best prospect of a single acceptable colour television system for the whole of Europe... The Russians call the Soviet system NIR.
1969 P. S. Carnt & G. B. Townsend Colour Television II. vii. 237 In April, 1963, the Non-linear NIR system had already been anticipated by B. W. B. Pethers of the BBC. This was some two years before the NIR system came to light.
NIRA n. (also Nira) U.S. (now historical) the National Industrial Recovery Act, an act passed by the Roosevelt Administration in 1933 as part of the New Deal; cf. NRA.
ΚΠ
1933 Sun (Baltimore) 23 Aug. 1/3 ‘Threats, intimidation, compulsion, boycotts, blacklists and suppression of opinion,’ he declared, ‘were never contemplated by the N.I.R.A.’.
1933 Sun (Baltimore) 9 Sept. 1/2 The power of propaganda and the press has had few better illustrations than the way in which the so called ‘Nira’ is obscuring the other great Administration activities in Washington and in the country.
1947 Amer. Econ. Rev. 37 690 Neither the World War I nor the NIRA experience was collected and analyzed to make it useful for application in a future national emergency.
1999 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 107 180 The Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in mid 1935 on constitutional grounds.
Nirex n.
Brit. /ˈnʌɪrɛks/
, /ˈnʌɪrɛks/U.S. /ˈnaɪˌrɛks/
(also NIREX) British Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive./ˈnaɪˌrɛks/ΚΠ
1982 Nucleonics Week (Nexis) 29 July 12 Though the decision to create Nirex was announced only last week, it has already set up shop.
1989 New Scientist 14 Jan. 30/1 Environmentalists are angry that NIREX has not considered as an option the long-term storage of nuclear waste above ground.
1997 Earth Matters Spring 14/1 Sellafield doesn't meet basic safety criteria, and..a leaked memo from Nirex revealed that they may ‘struggle’ to prove that a dump at the site would be safe.
NIV n. New International Version (of the Bible), first published in 1978.
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1978 Publishers Weekly 6 Nov. 48/1 (advt.) The NIV was a transdenominational effort by more than a hundred top Biblical scholars.
1979 (title) The NIV interlinear Hebrew–English Old Testament.
1980 Jrnl. Evangelical Theol. Soc. 23 307 (title) 1 Corinthians 7:1 in the NIV.
1997 Dallas Morning News (Electronic ed.) 12 July One of the translation committee's many responsibilities is to review the NIV systematically and periodically to ensure that it is kept up to date.
N.J. n. New Jersey.
Π
1830 Biblical Repertory Jan. 154 An introductory essay, by the Rev. Dr Alexander, of Princeton, N. J.
1877 W. Whitman Daybk. 3 May (1978) I. 55 May 3—to E A Veght Somerville NJ.
1938 Sun (Baltimore) 18 May 8/7 The first of the now famous ‘seeing-eye’ dogs has been carried by plane back to the Seeing Eye School at Morristown, N.J.
1992 News Jrnl. (Wilmington, Delaware) 18 Aug. c3/4 The eight-team, double-elimination tournament includes defending national champion Brooklawn, N.J., and traditional power Boyertown, Pa.
NK n. Immunology = natural killer n. at natural adj. and adv. Compounds 2.
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1976 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 143 778 This naturally occurring killer (NK) cell had low adherent properties and had the morphological appearance of a lymphocyte.
1977 Nature 15 Dec. 610/1 Individual adult mice with distinct variation in NK activity.
1993 Dog World Nov. 29/3 Once infected, the cells display particular large molecular weight glycoproteins (sugar proteins) embedded in their cell membranes, which NK cells recognize.
2002 Times 4 Apr. 3/4 Rhys Evans's condition was caused by the lack of a single gene, which means that the immune system cannot produce T-cells and the NK (natural killer) cells needed to fight infections.
NKVD n. [ < Russian NKVD, initialism < Narodnyj komissariat vnutrennih del] now historical (in the Soviet Union) People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which replaced the Ogpu in 1934 and in turn was replaced by the M.G.B. in 1946.
ΚΠ
1942 V. Conolly Soviet Asia (Oxf. Pamphlets on World Affairs) 13 The N.K.V.D. (Commissariat of Internal Affairs, former O.G.P.U.).
1973 T. Allbeury Choice of Enemies vi. 21 He was wearing an NKVD uniform.
1998 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 8 Oct. 27/2 As a chief NKVD interrogator of the Lubyanka prison in the 1930s, he would send former classmates to the Gulag.
NL n. Baseball National League.
ΚΠ
1890 N.Y. Times 3 May 2/5 It was the last game of the series between the Brooklyn and Boston National League teams... The score: Boston, (NL)... Brooklyn, (NL).
1980 J. A. Cuddon Macmillan Dict. Sport & Games 86/2 In 1882 the American Association, the NL's first competitor, was formed in cities which did not have teams representing them in the National League.
1995 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 15 Sept. 77/2 The Braves made NL history by becoming the first NL team to win four straight division titles.
NLF n. Politics = National Liberation Front n.
ΚΠ
1965 New Society 22 Apr. 259 Nguyen Huu Tho was made president of the NLF.
1972 H. Evans Editing & Design vii. 147 When the report says the NLF, the deskman should write in ‘the National Liberation Front, political arm of the Vietcong..’. There was at one time, anyway, another NLF—in Aden.
1987 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 4 May 8/2 The tanks which crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon flew the NLF flag, they were elements of the NVA.
2000 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 May 61/1 Small-unit warfare which would have spread slowly from village to village, cutting the villages off from the NLF.
NLP n. Linguistics = natural language processing n. at natural language n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1972 B. W. Hull Conceptual Dependency Structures in NLP, Nat. Lang. Processor iii. 22 A special type of attribute used in NLP is the ‘indicator’.
1996 Lit. & Ling. Computing 11 187/1 The resolution of prepositional phrase attachment ambiguity is a difficult problem in NLP.
NLP n. = neurolinguistic programming n. at neurolinguistic adj. Compounds.
Π
1978 Gestalt Jrnl. Fall 86 Even as an NLP beginner, I'm now far more effective (far more quickly) than I ever was as an ‘expert’ in Gestalt.
1994 Esquire Apr. 103/1 NLP uses a light-trance hypnosis to instantly ‘rewire’ the subconscious mind, eliminating painful phobias, negative self-image, and problems with intimacy.
2001 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 15 Apr. NLP can help you succeed where dieting has failed by putting you in touch with your eating habits.
N.M. n. New Mexico.
Π
1851 W. Williams Traveller's & Tourist's Guide U.S. 180/1 (table) Fort Smith to Santa Fe, N. M.
1885 Santa Fé Weekly New Mexican 23 July 4/4 Tanner has joined the new community or sect of faithists near Las Cruces, N.M.
1996 Japan Times 29 Apr. 12/2 My friend Sheila suffered shortness of breath at an altitude of 2,100 meters in Santa Fe, N.M.
NMR n. (also nmr) Physics nuclear magnetic resonance.
ΚΠ
1955 Jrnl. Chem. Physics 23 748/1 (title) Concentration dependence of chemical exchange and NMR multiplet structure in water–ethanol mixtures.
1982 T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. ii. 79 The nmr spectrum of nuclei in a protein structure will give structural and functional information on the nucleus and its microenvironment within the protein.
1997 New Scientist 14 June 93/1 (advt.) You should have a good knowledge of the application of modern high-resolution multidimensional, multinuclear NMR methods in solving the solution structures of macromolecules.
NNI n. = noise and number index n. at noise n. Compounds 2.
Π
1963 Final Rep. Comm. Probl. Noise 218 in Parl. Papers 1962–3 (Cmnd. 2056) XXII. 657 Measurement of noise levels and studies of the numbers of aircraft likely to be heard were made... The results have been combined..to form a Noise and Number Index (NNI).
1970 R. D. Ford Introd. Acoustics vii. 144 An external NNI of 55 has been taken as the recommended limit in the vicinity of London Airport and householders exposed to more noise have been offered a special grant for soundproofing their homes.
1988 Daily Tel. 31 Aug. 29/3 The term NNI is Noise and Number Index; 45 NNIs would interrupt a conversation, and 60 NNIs would wake the sleeping, but not the dead.
N.O. n. (also n.o.) Botany disused = natural order n. 2.
ΚΠ
1811–12 W. J. Titford Sketches Hortus Botanicus Americanus Explan. to Plate vii. i Oyster Plant (tradescantia), n.o. Ensatæ.
1855 E. Smith in Orr's Circle Sci.: Org. Nature II. 187 Narcissales..(N.O.) 43 Taccaceæ or Taccads.
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 31/2 Bitter-bark, an Australian tree, Petalostigma quadriloculare,..N.O. Euphorbiaceæ.
1928 N.E.D. at Wistaria Any plant of the genus Wistaria (N.O. Leguminosæ).
N.O. n. Naval Officer.
ΚΠ
1914 ‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xvii. 144 That girl to-night—Molly—I suppose she has refused half a dozen N.O.'s.
1916 G. Franklin Naval Digression i. xv. 136 Which brings to light another peculiarity of the average N.O.—how he can adopt a friendly ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ attitude to all and sundry and lose nothing in respect by it.
1958 M. Dickens Man Overboard i. 14 There'll be a lot of sharks about waiting for the innocent N.O. with his touching faith in human nature.
NOAA n. U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
ΚΠ
1969 Our Nation & Sea (Rep. Commission Marine Sci., Engin., & Resources) i. 4/2 To mobilize and impart energy to the total undertaking..the Commission recommends the formation of a new independent Federal agency, which might be called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA).
1971 Sci. News 27 Mar. 212 NOAA will be concerned with determining atmospheric conditions that make for pollution.
1984 A. C. Duxbury & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans ix. 306 NOAA publishes tidal current data in a format similar to the tide tables.
1998 Fortean Times July 13/2 Data from the NOAA-14 weather satellite indicated rain in the region was still ‘at least two to three weeks away’.
NOP n. British National Opinion Poll, a market research agency founded in 1957.
ΚΠ
1967 Appl. Statistics 16 162 This scheme [for conducting polls] differs slightly..from that used in practice by N.O.P.
a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 571 There is no doubt Harold is going through a terrible time, though the N.O.P. poll published on Thursday showed us with a 16½ per cent lead.
1999 Independent 4 May i. 4/7 Men can get post-natal depression, an NOP poll for Bella magazine has found.
NORML n. [humorously after normal adj.] U.S. National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
ΚΠ
1971 Playboy June 57/2 The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML),..launched by a Playboy Foundation grant, will sponsor and promote reform legislation..to remove penalties for possession and use of grass.
1973 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Jan. 8/2 The capital's most improbable lobbyist..was sitting at his cluttered desk beneath his ‘Reefer Madness’ wall poster..recounting..how he came to start NORML.
1999 Esquire July 30/1 You already know that Internet valuations are higher than a NORML caucus in Amsterdam.
NOW n. U.S. National Organization for Women.
ΚΠ
1966 N.Y. Times 22 Nov. 44/1 NOW..was formed three weeks ago in Washington to press for ‘true equality for all women in America’.
1989 C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 1570/1 In 1966 Atkinson joined the nascent NOW, where her..genteel Republican connections were put to use in national fund-raising.
N.P. n. = notary public at notary n. 1b.
Π
1581 in C. C. Harvey Cal. Writs Yester House (1930) 228 Certified transcript..from the skrowis and prothogall of um. David Kingorne, N.P.
1916 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 10 iv. 374 Given under my hand this 19th day of November, 1915. L. B. Foster, N. P.
2000 Shape Oct. 148/1 Everything's your fault. This is called personalization, says Harvard's Peg Baim, M.S., N.P.
NP n. Grammar noun phrase.
ΚΠ
1956 IRE Trans. Information Theory 2 116/2 Syntactic description is given in terms of what is called ‘immediate constituent analysis’. In description of this sort the words of a sentence are grouped into phrases,..classified as noun phrases (NP), verb phrases (VP) etc.
1972 R. M. W. Dixon Dyirbal Lang. N. Queensland v. 211 One final constituent of an NP which has not been dealt with above is a modifier noun.
1995 Appl. Linguistics 16 449 An explanation of choice between pronoun and full NP in expository texts.
Categories »
NP n. Mathematics and Computing (see NP n.2).
n.p. n. (of a book) no printer, no publisher; no place; not paginated.
ΚΠ
1882 S. Halkett & J. Laing Dict. Anon. & Pseudonymous Lit. Great Brit. I. 122/1 Answer to the Declaration published by the Archbishop of Canterbury... n.p., n.d. Octavo. Pp. 12.
a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 137/1 n.p., no place (no printer's name).
1952 J. Carter ABC for Book-collectors 124 No place, no printer, no publisher (indiscriminately or collectively shortened to n.p.).
1966 Dawson's of Pall Mall Catal. No. 162. 12 Cicero..Laelius de amicitia. (n.p., n.d.) (Cologne..about 1467).
1969 N. B. Eales Cole Libr. of Early Med. & Zool. 330 The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences... 2 vols. Fr., [4], vi, n.p. Pls. 1–11, 14–35, 40–42.
NPD n. [ < German NPD, initialism < Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands] now historical National Democratic Party (in West Germany following the Second World War, 1939–45).
ΚΠ
1966 Guardian 14 Mar. 21/8 The NPD..won up to 10 per cent in some Bavarian towns.
1969 S. Hyland Top Bloody Secret ii. 125 The two people who..organised the first conference of the Neo-Nazi party, NPD.
1989 I. Kershaw Hitler Myth (BNC) The short-lived revitalization of the neo-Nazi Right..saw the temporary rise to prominence of the NPD between 1966 and 1968.
NPL n. British National Physical Laboratory.
ΚΠ
a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 137/1 N.P.L., National Physical Laboratory (Bushey, by Teddington).
1920 Flight 12 1131/2 With regard to the staffs at the N.P.L. and at the R.A.E., he said he hoped that provision would be made to maintain these on an adequate scale.
1953 K. J. Hume & G. H. Sharp Pract. Metrol. (1965) ii. xx. 94 Screw Pitch Measuring Machine of N.P.L. 6 in. × 9 in. type, or similar machine of proprietary make.
1998 New Scientist 18 July 21/3 NIST's version of NPL's ‘watt-balance’ device comprises an electromagnet nearly three metres tall with a scale on top.
NPT n. = Non-Proliferation Treaty at non-proliferation n.
Π
1967 Science 21 July 289/2 At the NPT talks, the crucial question on inspection has been not how but who.
1991 World Press Rev. Dec. 10/1 The NPT is a voluntary system, but once a country becomes a signatory, it is bound by international law.
2000 Scotsman (Electronic ed.) 18 Jan. Iran's foreign minister..was at pains to point out Tehran's adherence to the NPT, contrasting it with Israel's long-suspected nuclear weapons programme.
NPV n. Accounting = net present value n. at net adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1963 A. J. Merrett & A. Sykes Finance & Anal. Capital Projects i. ii. 35 The equation can thus be written to give the NPV as [etc.].
1969 D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. ii. vi. 128 If we..add together the sums of money in Column C, including the minus £1,000 for Year 0, we are left with a net amount of £10. This is known as the net present value (NPV) of the project.
1990 R. Izhar Accounting, Costing, & Managem. iii. xxiv. 369 When NPV is negative the project should be rejected.
NRA n. U.S. (now historical) National Recovery Administration, established as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act (cf. NIRA n.) with the purpose of creating and maintaining industry-wide codes of fair practice (it was declared invalid by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1935).
ΚΠ
1933 N.Y. Times 3 Aug. 16/4 The most vital issue in the whole National Recovery Program is, of course, the question whether we shall end up speaking of it as the NRA or the N.R.A. People are saying NIRA and NRA but there is no denying the fact that there is a self-conscious air about it.
1945 Fortune Mar. 111 Apart from..the subsequent narrow escape from the degrading corporate statism inherent in NRA, this was the New Deal's finest hour.
1982 A. Brinkley Voices of Protest Prol. 4 It had been he who had conceived the famous Blue Eagle to symbolize the NRA.
NRA n. National Rifle Association (the U.K. body was founded in 1860 and the U.S. association in 1871).
Π
1860 J. Scoffern Royal Rifle Match 95 3rd Set, 500 yards, 5 rounds.—Given by—1. N.R.A., 40l., won by Brooks, 12th Middlesex—7 points.
1873 N.Y. Times 22 June 5/5 Weapon, any military rifle; rounds, five, with privilege of two sighting shots... First prize.., J. O. Bush, N.R.A.
1999 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 25 Apr. In the wake of the Columbine High School slayings, the 2.8 million-member NRA is struggling to hold the loyalty of gun industry executives.
NRA n. British (now historical) National Rivers Authority (established in 1989 and superseded in 1996 by the Environment Agency).
ΚΠ
1989 Nat. World Autumn 5/2 The NRA must show itself to be a strong and serious opponent of polluters.
1998 Town & Country Planning Apr. 118/2 The NRA declared that it would..exercise its powers as a consultee in the planning system to prevent pollution of groundwaters.
NRC n. (also N.R.C.) National Research Council.
Π
1924 Bull. National Res. Council 8 30 Report of Division of Engineering, N. R. C.
1976 J. Lukasiewicz Railway Game 156 The few federally-supported research projects at NRC and universities have not been significant.
2008 New Scientist 23 Feb. 24/3 ‘There were a number of cyber-skirmishes and hackbacks originating in China and America right around that time,’ says Herbert Lin, a software specialist at the US National Research Council (NRC).
NRC n. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ΚΠ
1974 G. R. Ford in Public Papers Presidents (1975) 289 NRC will be fully empowered to see that reactors..will be properly and safely designed.
1997 Chicago Tribune 9 Mar. i. 12/5 Last month, an advisory committee to the NRC issued a report that recommended rethinking the relationship between nuclear power plants and the people who operate them.
NRDC n. British (now historical) National Research Development Corporation (merged with the National Enterprise Board in 1980 to form the British Technology Group).
ΚΠ
1954 F. A. Buttress World List Abbrev. 186 NRDC, National Research Development Corporation, 1 Tilney Street, London, W.1.
1967 Jane's Surface Skimmer Syst. 1967–8 30/1 The Company has been granted an NRDC licence.
1981 Times 21 May 1/3 The new body will be called the British Technology Corporation and will be headed by Sir Frederick Wood at present chairman of the NRDC and the NEB.
NREM n. Medicine non-REM (cf. REM n.2); chiefly attributive designating the dominant kind of sleep, when brain activity is much reduced and there is no dreaming.
ΚΠ
1957 W. Dement & N. Kleitman in Jrnl. Exper. Psychol. 53 340/1 In most of the remaining text the following abbreviations will be used: REM's (rapid eye movements) and NREM's (no rapid eye movements).
1974 V. B. Mountcastle et al. Med. Physiol. (ed. 13) I. viii. 280/2 REM sleep and NREM sleep in narcolepsy and hypersomnia.
1996 D. J. Weatherall et al. Oxf. Textbk. Med. (ed. 3) II. xvii. 2906/2 NREM sleep shows a continuum from drowsy right down to very deep sleep.
NRI n. Indian English non-resident Indian, a person of Indian origin who lives abroad.
ΚΠ
1983 Econ. & Polit. Weekly 18 1873/1 Oh, these fly-by-night NRI depositors.
1992 Pioneer on Sunday (Delhi) 13 Sept. 9/2 Then some official pointed out that two different fees might create problems because how is the ticket seller to tell a Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan or NRI visitor from an Indian?
2003 Eastern Eye 3 Oct. (E Mag.) 14/1 I knew that Boom! would just not go down too well with the Indian audiences, let alone the NRI audiences who are much more conservative than people out here.
NRSV n. New Revised Standard Version (of the Bible), first published in 1990.
Π
1989 United Press Internat. Newswire (Nexis) 19 May The NRSV will appear in bookstores in a variety of editions beginning in the summer of 1990.
1995 Catholic Insight Apr. 6/1 The politicization of the dispute on the so-called inclusive language of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation is evident in the present culture-and gender-sensitive times.
2011 Church Times 1 July 17/3 I have a lengthy drive to work and would like to listen to the Bible..on CD. Ideally, I am looking for NRSV, NJB, or REB.
N.S. adj. (also n.s.) (of a date) = new style n.
Π
1698 M. Prior Let. 15 Aug. in Marquis of Bath (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1908) III. 248 August 15 N.S. Paris.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 4. ⁋5 They write from Saxony of the 13th Instant, N.S.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 806/1 The discovery of America is justly dated on the 12th (N.S. 21st) of October 1492.
1968 Renaissance Q. 21 i. 2 Gondomar wrote that the speech occurred on Feb. 23, 1618, n.s.
N.S. adj. Banking (now rare) not sufficient.
ΚΠ
1900 Westm. Gaz. 30 June 9/3 It is generally sufficient..that the bank has not returned cheques unpaid with the mystical letters ‘N.S.’ (not sufficient) in the corner.
N.S. n. Nova Scotia.
Π
1824 J. C. B. Hart St. Ursula's Convent p. viii List of subscribers... Chipman, George Esq... Horton, N. S.
1869 J. Sadlier in Poems Thomas D'Arcy McGee 37 His obsequies were solemnized first in the Cathedral of Ottowa,..and again in the beautiful Cathedral of Halifax, N. S.
1903 Windsor Mag. Sept. 382 There is a Stické-court in Halifax, N.S... Prior to the year 1891 only three Stické-courts were in existence in the United Kingdom.
1992 Toronto Star 11 May a1/5 The dead were identified today as: Larry Bell, 25, of Eureka, N.S., and Ferris Dewan, 35, Grande Cache, Alta.
n/s n. (also N/S, n.s., etc.) non-smoker; non-smoking.
Π
1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 9 Aug. 39/1 (advt.) Attractive, intelligent lady, n/s, wishes to meet tall slim guy.
1991 Choice Mar. 76 (advt.) Professional scientist, 65, seeks solvent N/S lady.
1998 Disability Now Nov. 35/1 (advt.) If, like me, you are a n/s, and you like your quiet home life, with the odd day out, then I would love to hear from you.
NSA n. U.S. National Security Agency.
ΚΠ
1952 Romanian-Eng. Dict. (U.S. National Security Agency) (title page) Prepared by NSA 762 Dictionary Unit.
1995 New Scientist 1 July 26/2 The goal of the NSA and some other elements of the US government..is to force all net cryptography programs to have trapdoors that are accessible by law enforcement agents.
NSC n. U.S. National Security Council.
ΚΠ
1948 Mil. Functions, National Mil. Establishm. Appropriation Bill for 1949 (Hearing before U.S. House Appropriations Comm.) 182 The personal services for the NSC staff fall into three general categories.
1998 Esquire Jan. 59/3 So he called a CIA agent named ‘Bob’ and asked him to tell that upright NSC lady to stop oppressing Roger.
NSF n. National Science Foundation, a U.S. government-funded agency founded in 1950 which sponsors research and development in science and engineering.
Π
1950 Washington Post 11 Mar. 9/1 The chances for the success of the House proposed NSF are jeopardized at the outset by its violation of the first principle of scientific tradition.
2001 Nature 13 Sept. 93/2 The NSF and NASA have done a good job of implementing the priority projects.
N.S.F. n. Banking not sufficient funds.
ΚΠ
1964 Toronto Daily Star 29 Aug. (Canadian Weekly Suppl.) 6/1 After some discussion we agreed that it could be either a NSF cheque or one wrongly made out by the realtor.
N.S.P.C.A. n. [apparently an error for R.S.P.C.A. (see RSPCA n. at R n. Initialisms 2)] British (now historical) National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
ΚΠ
a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 137/2 N.S.P.C.A., National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
NSPCC n. British National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
ΚΠ
1895 Civil Rights for Children (N.S.P.C.C. Ann. Rep.) (inside back cover) Mary P. Bolton, Asst.-Sec., N.S.P.C.C.
1963 Social Work Oct. 20/2 Some will emphasise the word ‘neglect’ and think in terms of an extended N.S.P.C.C. inspectorate.
1999 Campaign 2 July 8/2 The jury also awarded four gold lions to UK agencies... Saatchi & Saatchi was..garlanded for its NSPCC anti-child abuse film, ‘can't look’.
NSU n. Medicine non-specific urethritis.
ΚΠ
1967 Brit. Jrnl. Venereal Dis. 43 170/1 The causes of non-specific urethritis (NSU) have not been established.
1993 Guardian 24 July (Weekend Suppl.) 8/1 To the heedless young rake, the worst thunderbolt Heaven could deliver was a passingly uncomfortable dose of NSU.
NSW n. New South Wales.
Π
1852 T. Cass Let. 1 May in J. Deans Pioneers of Canterbury (1937) x. 221 I take the opportunity of sending you a few lines by way of N.S. Wales, a cattle vessel leaving in a day or two.]
1888 F. M. Bailey Queensland Woods 65 ‘Jimmy Low’. Forest Mahogany of N.S.W. Usually a very large tree with a rough, reddish, fibrous bark.
1909 B. Stevens Golden Treasury of Austral. Verse 336 Gidya, a Queensland and N.S.W. aboriginal word for a tree of the acacia species.
1991 Canberra Times 31 Jan. 3/1 If the proposal is given the green light by the NSW and Federal Governments, Canberra would become the regional centre of a sizeable portion of NSW.
NT n. British = National Trust n.
ΚΠ
1979 Ann. Rep. Hist. Buildings Council for Eng. 1977–8 App. b. 19 LA = Building owned by Local Authority. NT = Building owned by National Trust.
1999 Gloucestershire Echo (Electronic ed.) 25 Oct. Ken worked on the estate in the woods department for many years until made redundant by the NT.
NT n. New Testament.
Π
1707 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 1 June (1886) II. 17 A royal paper copy of Mill's N.T.
1844 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. Aug. (1954) I. 180 My plan has been where there are such quotations from the N.T. to put our English authorized version through it may not be literal.
1986 Evangelical Q. Jan. 9 ‘Liberation’ is not a direct equivalent of any one word in the Greek NT, but a study of a number of near-equivalents is valuable to highlight the NT perspective.
N.T.P. n. (also n.t.p.) Physics normal temperature and pressure, namely a temperature of 0°C and a pressure of one standard atmosphere (101,325 N m−2, approx. 760 mm of mercury); now usually called s.t.p.
ΚΠ
1899 R. H. Jude & H. Gossin Physics iv. iii. 275 It is usual, in quoting both the specific gravity and the absolute density of a gas, to refer them to normal temperature and pressure (N.T.P.).
1924 A. J. Allmand & H. J. T. Ellingham Princ. Appl. Electrochem. (ed. 2) xxv. 636 279 litres of dry gas at N.T.P.
1955 K. Hutton & A. Swallow Chem. for Gen. Sci. iii. 32 The density of air is 1.29 gms. per litre and that of argon 1.78 gms. per litre, both measured at N.T.P.
1973 J. G. Tweeddale Materials Technol. I. iii. 56 Atoms of elements such as hydrogen or oxygen which, at n.t.p. always form into diatomic molecules.
NTSC n. a colour television system developed in the United States by the National Television System Committee and used in North America and Japan.
ΚΠ
1957 B.B.C. Handbk. 136 The N.T.S.C. system now in use for a public service in the United States of America.
1966 Economist 12 Feb. 628/2 The Americans manage to transmit colour from coast to coast by NTSC.
1990 Which? June 320/1 The US TV system (NTSC) is technically quite different from the PAL system used in most of Europe.
NUJ n. British National Union of Journalists.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > other specific trade unions
NUT1889
AWU1904
Nalgo1909
NUJ1909
Aslef1914
NUR1914
AEU1921
NUPE1931
U.A.W.1936
USDAW1946
NUM1948
T.G.W.U.1955
ACTT1957
C.B.I.1965
ASTMS1967
AUEW1971
Apex1972
UDM1985
1909 Newspaper Owner 9 Oct. 5/2 Does a writer on a London or provincial daily journal fall to the intellectual or social level of a navvy when he (the writer) joins the N.U.J.?
1990 Health Guardian Nov. 11/4 The NUJ, concerned by the spate of members' complaints, is preparing for tough legal battles.
2000 Independent 13 June (Tuesday Review section) 10/4 The NUJ's freelance membership has begun to sit up and demand attention and the union held its first freelance conference last year.
NUM n. National Union of Mineworkers (in Britain and in South Africa).
ΘΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > other specific trade unions
NUT1889
AWU1904
Nalgo1909
NUJ1909
Aslef1914
NUR1914
AEU1921
NUPE1931
U.A.W.1936
USDAW1946
NUM1948
T.G.W.U.1955
ACTT1957
C.B.I.1965
ASTMS1967
AUEW1971
Apex1972
UDM1985
1948 Ann. Reg. 1947 i. v. 90 The negotiations with the N.U.M. on the method of working overtime..languished.
1984 P. Larkin Let. 15 Sept. in Sel. Lett. (1992) 719 Clearly the NUM will have to get rid of Mr S. at some point, but I can't see them doing it until famine and pestilence are stalking the land.
1999 E. Afr. Standard (Nairobi) 28 July 6/2 The presidents of the industry's Chamber of Mines and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have also made an unlikely team on roadshows in London and Washington.
NUR n. British (now historical) National Union of Railwaymen.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > other specific trade unions
NUT1889
AWU1904
Nalgo1909
NUJ1909
Aslef1914
NUR1914
AEU1921
NUPE1931
U.A.W.1936
USDAW1946
NUM1948
T.G.W.U.1955
ACTT1957
C.B.I.1965
ASTMS1967
AUEW1971
Apex1972
UDM1985
1914 Railway Mag. Nov. 401/1 It was..agreed that all existing contracts and conditions of service shall remain in operation,..(signed) for General Managers' Committee:—..for N.U.R.:—..for A.S.L.E. & F.:—.
1955 Times 2 May 12/7 The union have won the right to put their case without having representatives of the N.U.R. present.
1994 A. Roberts Eminent Churchillians v. 267 The NUR, ALSEF and TSSA had the last laugh in December 1953, however. Churchill's stance was simple. ‘We cannot have a railway strike.’
NUS n. National Union of Students (esp. in Britain and Australia).
Π
1924 University 1 21 F. G. Connor..who attended as the representative of the English N.U.S., described the constitution and development of the National Union of Students of England and Wales.
1973 J. H. M. Scott Dons & Students xii 145 The vice-chancellors turned it down, effectively siding with the nus against it.
1990 Australian 9 May (Brisbane ed.) 15/4 Griffith University, which decided earlier this year to refuse to pay NUS fees.
NUT n. British National Union of Teachers.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > other specific trade unions
NUT1889
AWU1904
Nalgo1909
NUJ1909
Aslef1914
NUR1914
AEU1921
NUPE1931
U.A.W.1936
USDAW1946
NUM1948
T.G.W.U.1955
ACTT1957
C.B.I.1965
ASTMS1967
AUEW1971
Apex1972
UDM1985
1889 Schoolmaster 4 May 634/1 In place of the familiar initials, N.U.E.T. we have the shorter, and let us hope the improved, form of N.U.T... The objects of the N.U.E.T. remain the objects of the N.U.T.
1973 L. Holcombe Victorian Ladies at Work iii. 39 The National Union of Teachers..was organized in 1870... In 1911 the N.U.T. elected its first woman president.
1999 Teacher Mar. 3/2 That anger will not be confined to members of the NUT which is why the union is asking the other teacher unions to join it in holding indicative ballots.
nvCJD n. Medicine = new variant CJD n. at new adj. and n. Compounds 2a. Cf. variant CJD n. at variant adj. and n. Additions.
ΚΠ
1996 Med. Post (Nexis) 18 June 1 New variant CJD (NV-CJD) has been identified in 11 Britons so far.
1996 Guardian 25 Oct. i. 3/7 With clinical knowledge of the symptoms of nvCJD restricted to relatively few specialists, there is controversy over the diagnosis of new cases.
1998 Jrnl. Neurol. Sci. 155 138 Since the report of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD) in humans last year, the search was on for direct evidence to link the condition to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
NVQ n. Education = National Vocational Qualification n. at national adj. and n. Compounds; cf. GNVQ.
ΚΠ
1987 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. 5 June 4/3 The National Council for Vocational Qualifications..believes that there are considerable benefits to be gained for both the country and individuals in extending the NVQ framework.
1993 Brit.: Official Handbk. (H.M.S.O.) 415/1 The following five levels of NVQs have been established: Level 1—Foundation..Level 2—Basic craft..Level 3—Technician, advanced craft, supervisor..Level 4—Higher technician, junior management..Level 5—Professional, middle management.
2001 Evening Post (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 24 Jan. If they then successfully complete a level three NVQ—equivalent to five GCSEs—they are guaranteed a place on a three-year, pre-registration nursing diploma course.
N.Y. n. New York.
Π
1797 J. Morse Amer. Gazetteer (Table of Post-Offices) sig. Ppp2/1 Albany, N. Y.
1799 T. Jefferson Let. 12 Mar. in Writings (1984) 1063 In Pensylva, 13. out of 22. counties had already petitioned on the alien & sedition laws. Jersey and N Y had begun the same movement.
1846 Spirit of Times 18 Apr. 94/1 Young Dread will stand this season at Watertown, Jefferson County, N.Y.
1938 J. Joyce Let. 12 Jan. (1966) III. 410 Your N.Y. cable came this morning.
1993 Wall St. Jrnl. 4 Nov. a1/5 The machines' ‘proliferating gadgetry’ makes electronics stores a logical step, says American Sports Data in Westchester County, N.Y.
NYC n. New York City.
Π
1869 E. H. Gillett (title) Sermon on the character and labors of the late Rev. Jeremiah S. Lord, D.D. Pastor of the Reformed Church, Harlem, New York City Preached in the Harlem Presbyterian Church, N.Y.C.
1891 Rep. Supreme Court Kansas 44 645 John J. Becker, Notary Public, 170, N.Y.C., State of New York, City and County of New York.
1964 Films in Rev. Mar. 166/2 It isn't easy to find the credits where they belong these days on tv, provided one finds them at all. Four of the six NYC stations credit-tamper.
1999 N.Y. Times 19 Sept. iii. 14/4 (advt.) Our headquarters is conveniently located in Northern New Jersey and is minutes from NYC via water shuttle.
NYPD n. New York Police Department.
Π
1919 Sat. Evening Post 15 Nov. 21/2 It was fitted longitudinally with seats, had a wire grating and was marked, ‘N.Y.P.D.’ Two policemen in uniform sat in front.
1964 Misc. Rep. (N.Y.) 42 979 I am a police officer assigned to the 17th Division. NYPD.
1998 N.Y. Mag. 15 June 47/1 An NYPD forensics expert.
NYSE n. New York Stock Exchange.
Π
1939 Amer. Econ. Rev. 29 742 Quarterly dividends to average monthly prices of all dividend-paying common stocks listed on N.Y.S.E., compiled by Cleveland Trust Co.
1964 Financial Times 25 Feb. 3/7 A special committee set up by the N.Y.S.E.
1996 Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) 28 Apr. 6/3 The NYSE's composite index rose 0.53 to 350.82.
N.Z. n. New Zealand.
Π
1793 P. G. King Let. 19 Nov. in Hist. Rec. New S. Wales (1893) II. 98 If N.Z. should be seriously thought on, would it not be advisable for some person to examine the country?
1853 J. M. Richmond Let. 11 Nov. in Richmond–Atkinson Papers (1960) I. iii. 133 Their ‘wharre’, as it is called..is in fact a roof on the ground, thatched with nikau, a palm, the only one in N.Z.
a1944 K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) xix. 120 He..cut off..my new N.Z. battle-dress blouse.
1996 Independent 3 Jan. (Suppl.) 18/3 The statistical explanation for the high level of injury..is the number of visitors who indulge in..high-risk activity in NZ's great outdoors.
I2. Standing for north adv., adj., and n. or (occasionally) northern adj. in the names of compass directions, regions, institutions, etc.† N.L. n. Obsolete rare north latitude.
N.A. adj. and n. (a) adj. North American; (b) n. North America.
Π
1817 N. Amer. Rev. July 199 See notes on the third Satire, in the N.A. Review, for January.
1900 Naval & Mil. Rev. July 5 Name of Vessel. Pearl. Present Station. N.A. and W.I.
1990 D. Millar Special Effects (BNC) 11 The death scene at the end of Bonnie and Clyde (1967, NA rentals $27.8 million) is clearly an instance of ‘realism’.
N.B. n. now historical North Britain (i.e. Scotland); North British.
ΚΠ
1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. xv. 321 For William Lovel, Esquire, at Mrs Hadoway's, High-street, Fairport, by Edinburgh, N.B.
1864 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? I. xviii. 145 Castle Reekie, N. B.—Oct. 186–.
1888 Scotsman 8 Feb. 3/6 Chance-lot Feus, convenient to Cars and N.B. and Cal. Railway.
1917 ‘H. Foulis’ Spree in Jimmy Swan 45 Ye have no conception o' my compass on the N.B. Railway oot aboot Slamannan.
1946 Kelly's Handbk. 1664/2 Roxburghe, 9 duke of..., George..Innes-Ker,..Floors Castle, Kelso, N.B.
1969 Trans. Inst. Brit. Geographers 48 167 Both the G.S.W. and N.B. companies had large shares in the coal..traffic of the Central Scottish lowlands... In Scotland, the Caledonian and N.B. systems..relied heavily upon locally generated traffic.
N.C. n. North Carolina.
Π
1777 Virginia Gaz. 16 May 3/2 Strayed or stolen..three waggon horses, belonging to the state of North Carolina..and branded on the near cheek N.C... Alex: Martin, col. 2d N.C. battalion.
1820 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 219 A farewell sermon, delivered in the Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville, N.C.
1878 W. Whitman Daybk. (1978) I. 82 Wreck of the Metropolis..on Currituck shoals, N.C.
1992 N.Y. Times 12 July i. 1/6 Muriel Offerman, a Democrat from Raleigh, N.C.,..knows Manhattan well from her days in the retail clothing business.
N.D. n. North Dakota.
Π
1891 Amer. Missionary Apr. 131 (heading) Fort Berthold Agency, N.D.
1947 Amer. Speech 22 249 Mr. Bruce Nelson, of Bismarck, N.D., tells me that Dakotan now prevails [over Dakotian] in both Dakotas.
1993 Via Media/Episcopal Life Sept. 20/3 Gethsemane Cathedral, Fargo, N.D., looks like a 19th-century Gothic revival floor plan.
N.E. adv., n., and adj. north-east; north-eastern; also NEtly north-easterly.
Π
1608 W. Hawkins in Hawkins' Voy. (1878) 378 A hummocke..boare of us N.E.
1615 T. Roe Jrnl. 25 June (1899) I. 15 We sawe land bearing from W. to N.E. by E. all along.
1708 London Gaz. No. 4418/3 The Wind was this Morning..at six, at N., at eight at N.E.
1739 Encour. Seaf. People 38 The Admiral followed them.., with small Gales NEtly.
1809 J. Austen Let. 17 Jan. (1952) 252 We do not suffer as we did last year, because the wind has been more N.E.—than N.W.
1908 Between Trent & Ancholme 55 A yard or two further takes us to the N.E. corner.
1995 Farmers Weekly 21 July 122 (advt.) Rearing and finishing pig farms throughout N.E. Scotland.
ΚΠ
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. xlix. 485 Beginning at 84° N.L. he [sc. Latreille] has seven Arctic ones [sc. climates], which he names polar, subpolar, superior, intermediate, supratropical, tropical, and equatorial.
N.N.E. n., adj., and adv. north-north-east.
Π
1513 E. Howard Let. 12 Apr. in Lett. & Papers relating to War with France (Navy Rec. Soc.) (1897) 122 The Monday last, the wynd roosse soon to N.N.E. that we weer feyn [to] set us in with the Traad.
1612 W. J. Blaeu Light of Navigation ii. v. 38/1 A good Haven, where you may lye safe against al windes, except a n. e. & a n.n.e. winde.
c1617 J. Jourdain Jrnl. (1905) 53 Wee steered for the land, which bare of us N.N.E.; but the winde beinge variable, wee could not seaze this iland.
1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 139 As the Course of the other Rivers were N. by E. or N.N.E. the Course of this lay N.N.W.
1893 P. Lake tr. E. Kayser Text Bk. Compar. Geol. 241 In England the Jura forms a broad zone striking N.N.E.
1991 Motorboat & Yachting June 123/3 The wind remained NNE the whole way up to the River Tyne.
N.N.W. n., adj., and adv. north-north-west.
Π
1638 T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 73 'Tis wall'd about, and to the N.N.W. discovers a lake or fish-pond five miles over.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 68 It was on the N.N.W. Side of the Hill.
1855 J. Phillips Man. Geol. 192 There is also a narrow tract of Caradoc sandstone running N.N.W. in the Lickey Hills.
1990 Lifeboat (RNLI) Spring 228/1 The wind was NNW, Force 5 to 6 with seas some 5ft to 6ft high breaking on the beach.
N.T. n. Northern Territory (Australia).
Π
1907 Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 15/3 Pine Creek (N.T.)..is now a one-horse village. No one there but Government servants, a pub, saddler and storekeeper.
2000 Leyland's Austral. Winter 5/2 (caption) The convoy travels on the road to Flora River Nature Reserve in the N.T. to film the remarkable tufa formations.
NVA n. now historical North Vietnamese Army.
ΚΠ
1966 W. P. Bundy Memo 4 May in US-Vietnam Relations (1971) IV. c.7(a) 114 A declared cessation of infiltration and a sharp reduction in VC/NVA military operations in the South.
1969 Atlantic Mar. 28 Millions of people in Vietnam..have risked their lives..to fight off the NLF, the VC, the DRV, the NVA.
1994 Fighting Firearms Autumn 22 When the machine gun is in a pill box or bunker as frequently encountered when fighting..the NVA during the Vietnam War, the engagement window is small.
N.W. adv., n., and adj. north-west; north-western; north-westerly.
ΘΠ
society > communication > correspondence > sending items > [noun] > addressing letter > address > London postal district
N.W.1615
W.C.1857
S.W.1934
S.E.1968
1615 T. Roe Jrnl. 26 Mar. in Embassy to Court of Great Mogul (1899) I. 3 Wee..saw land N.W. for the Canarye 8 leauges off.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 255 This Land which I perceiv'd to the W. and N. W. was the great Island Trinidad.
1790 W. Bligh Narr. Mutiny on Bounty 12 We discovered a stony cove at the N W part of the island.
1899 W. J. Locke White Dove (1900) x. 151 Dr. Frodsham..had..[moved] from the house in Weymouth Street into the purer air of the N.W. district.
1990 Mountain Nov. 11/1 The route climbed difficult mixed ground to 7000m, to reach the snow dome on the NW Ridge.
NWMP n. Canadian (now historical) North-West Mounted Police.
ΚΠ
1881 Edmonton Bull. 29 Oct. 1/2 Recruits for the N.W.M.P. are being brought in by way of Winnipeg.
1958 P. Berton Klondike Fever ii. 77 Only one other man in the Yukon felt the same way, and that was Charles Constantine, the NWMP superintendent.
1993 Beaver Apr. 12/1 That year, 318 NWMP officers..relentlessly crossed grassland, coulees, rivers and bush to bring law and order to the west.
N.W.T. n. Northwest Territories (Canada).
Π
1876 Descr. Catal. Econ. Min. 23 North Saskatchewan River, N.W.T.
1996 Chatelaine June 69 Sate your appetite with musk ox meatballs in Inuvik, N.W.T.
I3. Science. In form n (without point). In symbols of units of measurement: = nano- comb. form. See sense 15i.
ng n. nanogram(s).
ΚΠ
1951 Nature 8 Dec. 1008/2 Most microanalytical needs are satisfied by the subunits milligram and microgram. This sequence has now been extended by the nanogram (ng = 10−9 g) and picogram (pg = 10−12 g).
1990 EMBO Jrnl. 9 4093/2 Denatured DNA (100 ng) and mRNA (40 μg)..were coprecipitated and resuspended in 40 μl hybridization solution.
nm n. nanometre(s).
ΚΠ
1963 Calibration & Test Services (Nat. Bureau of Standards Misc. Publ. 250) 41 Transmittances of these disks at wavelengths from 365 to 390 nm (nanometer, 10−9 meter)..will also be determined on request.
1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) ii. 189/1 In the phaeodarian endoplasm are numerous strange tubes, called rodlets, about 200 nm wide.
nmol n. nanomole(s).
ΚΠ
1977 Lancet 14 May 1050/2 C.B.G. binding capacity,..expressed as nmol cortisol bound/l, was 386 nmol/l.
1993 Jrnl. Trop. Pediatrics 39 107/2 Group I..included patients with mild iron overload, i.e. with ferritin levels ranging from 300 to 7000 ng/ml (0.66–15.4 nmol/l).
ns n. nanosecond(s).
ΚΠ
1970 Physics Bull. Mar. 116/2 By 1965 powers of 109 W in pulses of duration ∼ 10 ns were produced by following the Q-spoiled oscillator with a series of ruby amplifiers.
1997 Bangkok Post 26 Feb. (Database section) 6/4 If your Pentium 200 computer is configured with standard RAM (not EDO) that is also slow (greater than 70 ns) you are further complicating the situation.
nT n. nanotesla(s).
ΚΠ
1972 Proc. Inst. Radio & Electronics Engineers Austral. 33 339 This magnetometer..digitally records the earth's total magnetic field in nano-teslas with an accuracy of + or − 0.02%..(in a field of approximately 50000 nT).
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 185/1 Many magnetic storms begin when the quiet day value of the geomagnetic surface field is abruptly increased by perhaps 10–30 nT.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
'nconj.1
/(ə)n/, U.S. /(ə)n/ colloquial.
= than conj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [noun] > particular qualities > definite or indefinite
certainc1374
quantitya1425
hundred1469
standard1545
'n1828
N1858
known1877
1828 J. Neal Rachel Dyer vii. 92 Ever since our Jeptha warn't more'n so high.
1848 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 1st Ser. ii. 23 I felt a thing go thru my leg,—'t wuz nothin' more'n a skeeter!
1867 J. T. Trowbridge Darius Green in Oxf. Bk. Children's Verse (1973) 262 The little chatterin', sassy wren, No bigger 'n my thumb.
1903 K. D. Wiggin Rebecca Sunnybrook Farm i. 8 We've only just started on it,..‘it's more 'n two hours.’
1946 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 332 We's down to worse'n dis, ef folk jes knowed.
1993 D. Lamb Sense of Place 251 I heard he's sicker 'n a dog and won't be making Britt this year.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
'n'conj.2
/(ə)n/, U.S. /(ə)n/ colloquial.
= and conj.1In later use frequently used between two nouns in established phrases, esp. in commercial contexts, as pick 'n' mix, rhythm 'n' blues, wash 'n' wear; cf. rock 'n' roll, variant of rock 'n' roll n. and adj., and mix'n'match, variant of mix-and-match adj. and n.
ΚΠ
1858 O. W. Holmes in Atlantic Monthly Sept. 497/1 To beat the taown 'n' the keounty.
1886 E. L. Bynner Agnes Surriage iv. 56 We'll be pixilated 'n' driven on to th' rocks an ye don't wake up.
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xvii. 233 Ther revolvin' arm was bent out, 'n' it got home a left lead 'n' er right cross.
1928 F. Hurst President is Born v. 67 God bless Mother 'n' Father.
1959 W. Golding Free Fall ii. 58 The fish-'n-chip smell of the engine oil.
1960 Amer. Speech 35 103 Mix-n-match tights.
1965 Ebony May 174 (advt.) Wash 'n' wear, sanforized fabrics.
1968 Listener 18 July 93/2 A Canadian play about four boys having sex-'n-violence in a reformatory.
1971 Black World June 63/1 The President's tryin' his level best to bring more 'n more boys home all the time.
1986 I. Wedde Symmes Hole (1988) 269 Silicone tits and a nip-'n-tuck or is it snip-'n-fold operation from some plausible gynaecologist in Rotorua.
1992 J. Torrington Swing Hammer Swing! x. 94 Okay, we all like a wee snifter now'n again but he's always got to go over the score.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.OE
conj.11828
conj.21858