{"id":24703,"date":"2026-08-07T19:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24703"},"modified":"2026-08-07T19:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:38:11","slug":"nearly-nigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24703","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Nigh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Which is nearer, <strong>near<\/strong> or <strong>nigh<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nicohogg\/166949400\/in\/photolist-gDU7XL-4rfk13-4rfki9-4rfjPu-5qtt2m-4rfkkW-4rbexr-4rbeP8-bJ9jwp-4rbeki-4rfk8h-4jBXX4-2orXpVJ-4rbeu6-r3jcP-4TMFrX-9huKwT-4rbeBX-4rfk1E-o6BfF-6jsdit-4rfjXN-6c53yj-5qttdh-2nDLnjE-2k62xXv-pyGfgq-dmX6by-dusw4k-6SuQ7D-wQzdX5-2oWLc9b-2oWJ7hh-62bdH-2oWLccY-fKEeW-9xPQL3-8vYnkk-2oWKbPE-2oWLz3u-2oWLcra-2oWLcwf-2oWKc6g-2oWKbTC-9KhG6C-2oWLyZU-2oWLz3j-aymkeG-2nDMDcW-q4h4uU\" title=\"My Student &quot;Digs&quot;.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/53\/166949400_f7a236a593_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"My Student &quot;Digs&quot;.\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>nigh<\/strong> [na\u026a] means near, close by, kindred, closely allied or intimate. It is used mainly in particular phrases, such as <strong>the end is nigh<\/strong> and is considered archaic and poetic.<\/p>\n<p>It comes from Middle English <em>neygh<\/em> (near, adjacent), from Old English <em>n\u0113ah<\/em> (near, close), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*n\u0101hw<\/em> (near, close), from Proto-Germanic <em>*n\u0113hw<\/em> (near, close), from <em>*n\u0113hwaz<\/em> (near, close), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082ne\u1e31-<\/em> (to reach, attain)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nigh<\/strong> was originally the standard word from <strong>near<\/strong>, while <strong>near<\/strong> was the comparative form meaning <strong>nearer<\/strong>, and <strong>next<\/strong> was the superlative form, meaning <strong>nearest<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/nigh#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Related words include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>nighen<\/strong> = to come near, approach, bring near, appropriate<\/li>\n<li><strong>nigh-hand<\/strong> = nearby, nearhand<\/li>\n<li><strong>nigh on<\/strong> = almost, nearly, approaching, not quite<\/li>\n<li><strong>nighness<\/strong> = the quality or state of being nigh, or near<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are all archaic, with the exception of <strong>nigh on<\/strong>, which is still used.<\/p>\n<p>Words that come from the same roots may include <strong>near<\/strong>, <strong>enough<\/strong> and <strong>bring<\/strong> in English, <strong>nach<\/strong> (after, past, behind, to) and <strong>nahe<\/strong> (near) in German, <strong>na<\/strong> (after) and <strong>genoeg<\/strong> (enough, plenty) in Dutch, <strong>nog<\/strong> (enough, sufficient, probably) in Swedish, <strong>cyfoeth<\/strong> (wealth, riches) in Welsh, and <strong>cumhacht<\/strong> (power, might) in Irish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/h%E2%82%82ne%E1%B8%B1-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>neighbour \/ neighbor<\/strong> also comes from the same roots, via Middle English <em>neyghbour<\/em> (neighbour), from <em>neygh<\/em> (near, adjacent) and <em>bour<\/em> (house, dwelling). Also from the same roots are <strong>Nachbar<\/strong> (neighbour) in German, <strong>nabo<\/strong> (neighbour) in Danish, <strong>naapuri<\/strong> (neighbour) in Finnish (via Old Swedish <em>nabo<\/em>), and <strong>n\u00e0baidh<\/strong> (neighbour) in Scottish Gaelic (via Old Norse <em>n\u00e1b\u00fai<\/em>) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/neighbour#Englishs\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, in Middle English the word <em>neyghbour<\/em> replaced the word <em>prome<\/em> (neighbour), which was borrowed from Old French <em>proeme<\/em> (neighbour), from Latin <em>proximus<\/em> (nearest, next).<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which is nearer, near or nigh? Let&#8217;s find out. The word nigh [na\u026a] means near, close by, kindred, closely allied or intimate. It is used mainly in particular phrases, such as the end is nigh and is considered archaic and poetic. It comes from Middle English neygh (near, adjacent), from Old English n\u0113ah (near, close), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,102,104,107,109,116,127,10,15,26,33,34,44,45,202,56,67,77,78],"tags":[164,158,138,672,673,674,676,675,671,281,163],"class_list":["post-24703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danish","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-finnish","category-german","category-irish","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-old-french","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","category-scottish-gaelic","category-swedish","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-near","tag-nearer","tag-nearest","tag-neighbour","tag-next","tag-nigh","tag-omniglot","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24705,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24703\/revisions\/24705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}