The words nix and natch have come up quite a bit in things I’ve read and/or heard recently, so I thought I’d look into their meanings and origins.
Nix as a verb means “to stop, prevent, or refuse to accept something” and as a noun it means “nothing or no”. These usages are apparently mainly informal and used in the US [source].
Accroding to the Online Etymology Dictionary, nix comes from the German nix, a dialectal variant of nichts (nothing), from the Middle High German nihtes, from the genitive of niht/nit (nothing) from the Old High German niwiht, from ni/ne (no) and wiht (thing, creature).
I rarely come across this word in British English.
Natch is an abbreviation of naturally, natch – I didn’t realise this until I looked it up. I thought it was some kind of negative, but wasn’t sure what it meant.
Nix is a word that I associate with books, movies, and TV shows showing the period of the 1930s-1950’s, I think of soldiers, film noir detectives, and teenagers of the 50s.
I grew up in the 1960’s and don’t think I ever used it as a kid or since.
Natch is a slang word that I have used when a teen or twenty-something. As you say, short for naturally and used as answer to a question, meaning “of course” or “naturally”.
Example:
Are you going to the movies with us tonight?
Natch.
American here. NIx isn’t used much in day-to-day conversation: it’s mostly used in entertainment (e.g. movies, TV shows, blog posts) where it has a 1940s feel and is deliberately slang and old-fashioned.
The fun thing about ‘nix’ is that it’s probably used more frequently in its Pig Latin form ‘ixnay‘. Its usage (1) in that Wiktionary article is the way it’s usually used, and you usually Pig Latinize more of the sentence. So their example of
Ixnay on the “W-A-L-K” while the dogs can hear you.
would more likely be said
Ixnay on the alk-way while the dogs can hear you.
Ha! Lisa posted while I was writing. I think you’ve got a pretty consistent picture from our two comments.
Nix as a verb has also hung on in newspaper headlines. The switch to online news which doesn’t put as big a premium on shorter headlines seems to be phasing it out.
In Denmark I often see signs with the text nix pille or niks pille, an informal way of saying “don’t touch”. The letter x is rare in Danish and only used in a few loan words. The more formal variant is ikke røre.
Interesting what you say about nix, because I’ve only heard it from my Canadian-although-lived-as-a-child-in-England father. Naturally, I use it from time to time, but I suppose I’ve never heard anyone else say it!
And I am American, for reference!