nixien.1
/ˈnɪksi/, U.S. /ˈnɪksi/ In German folklore: a water sprite or nymph having a human torso and the tail of a fish, and able to take on a variety of physical appearances in order to pass unnoticed among humans. See also water nixie n. at water n. Compounds 2g(b).
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the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > fairy or elf > [noun] > nature-spirit > inhabiting water
lady of the lake1579
shoupiltin1711
wraith1755
nixie1816
undine1821
nix1833
Jenny Greenteeth1850
1816 W. Scott Antiquary II. x. 266 All the German superstitions of nixies, oak-kings, were-wolves.
1821 W. Scott Pirate III. i. 19 She who sits by haunted well, Is subject to the Nixies spell.
1836 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 40 146 Those Elves and Erles,..those alps and goblins, those nixies and wood-nymphs.
1892 Daily News 16 Nov. 5/4 To the left and right, in the form of handles, are two nixies blowing shells.
1918 D. H. Lawrence New Poems 62 It seems to me The woman you are should be nixie, there is a pool Where we ought to be.
1952 R. Campbell tr. C. Baudelaire Poems 214 If your gaze the gaze transfixes Of satyresses or of nixies.
1992 Dragon Mag. Feb. 33/2 There are giants of various sorts, centaurs and other beast-men, and faerie and mythological types: pixies, sprites, nixies, dryads, satyrs, etc.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
nixien.2
/ˈnɪksi/, U.S. /ˈnɪksi/ 1. U.S. Post which cannot be forwarded by the postal services because it is illegibly or incorrectly addressed. Frequently attributive.
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1890 Cent. Dict. Nixy2.
1901 Congress. Rec. 34 ii. 1145/2 These poor ‘nixie’ clerks in the postoffices of this country.
1905 N.Y. Evening Post 8 Feb. 5 What the railway postal clerks most dread is the class of mail they know as ‘nixies’.
1929 Lit. Digest 5 Oct. 67/1 The similarity in appearance of the letters N.Y. and N.J... is responsible for many letters reaching the ‘Nixie’ division.
1956 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 19 Sept. 28/1 ‘Nixie’ is mail that can't be delivered because the address is incorrect, illegible, or insufficient.
1994 New Yorker 24 Oct. 68/3 In the Central Post Office's nixie unit—where mail arrives that has been illegibly or incorrectly addressed—I see street numbers in the seventy thousands.
2. = nix n.1 a. rare.
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the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun] > nothing > nothing at all
noughtOE
neither tip nor toe1610
nix1781
damn the haet1787
no nothing1815
zero1823
all1842
neither hide nor hair1857
zip1900
nixie1906
damn all1910
fuck-all1916
Fanny Adams1919
bugger-all1921
S.F.A.1933
not a sausage1938
shit1949
zilch1956
eff-all1958
sod all1958
diddly-squat1963
diddly1964
jack-all1965
niente1969
zippo1973
feck-all1975
hee-haw1975
naff all1977
jack squat1986
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xviii. 249 Er storm centre..redooced..land values t' nex' t' nixie.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
Nixien.3
/ˈnɪksi/, U.S. /ˈnɪksi/ Electronics.
More fully Nixie tube, Nixie indicator, etc. An indicator used in the displays of scientific instruments, consisting of a gas-discharge tube containing ten wire cathodes bent into the shapes of the numerals 0 to 9.A proprietary name in the U.S.
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1957 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 3 Sept. tm17/1 Nixie... For electronic indicator tubes.
1971 Electronic Design 19 24/1 Of the many challenges to the Nixie tube for the title of King of digital readout devices, the strongest is being mounted by the light-emitting diode.
1971 Electronic Design 19 53 The Nixie's early price was about $16 in quantities of 500.
1973 Sci. Amer. June 66/2 The name Nixie came about accidentally. A draftsman making drawings of the device labeled it nix i, for numeric indicator experimental No. 1. His colleagues began referring to it as ‘Nixie’, and the name stuck.
1987 J. Millman & A. Grabel Microelectronics (ed. 2) vii. 282 A Nixie indicator is a cold-cathode gas-discharge tube with a single anode and 10 cathodes, which are wires shaped in the form of numerals 0 to 9.
1988 Plays Internat. Aug. 34/3 A sophisticated, sterilised laboratory, where every flashing Nixie-tube is an exterior sign of success.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
nixieadv.
/ˈnɪksi/, U.S. /ˈnɪksi/ No, certainly not. Cf. nix adv.
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1886 H. Baumann Londinismen 120/1 Nixey..nein, nicht.
1887 World (N.Y.) 19 June 11/3 He had been told by a friend to ‘come here and I'll give you a tip.’ ‘Nixey,’ was the reply, ‘There's only one man who can give me a tip.’
1903 Pedagogical Seminary 10 373 Nixy... Don't you believe it. Not much.
1914 G. Atherton Perch of Devil i. 108 They're all right to marry,..but to sacrifice your life for, nixie.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.11816
n.21890n.31957adv.1886