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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

NESH, adj. Also neshe, na(i)sh (Jam.). Soft, tender, as a healing wound, fragile, delicate in health, sensitive (Sc. 1887 Jam.; Mry.1 1925, nash; ‡Sh., Ags., Per., wm.Sc. 1964). Now only dial. in Eng. [neʃ]Sc.(E) 1926 H. M'Diarmid Drunk Man 22:
Till clear and chitterin' and nesh Move a' the miseries o' his flesh.
Sc. 1990 Robert Crawford in Hamish Whyte and Janice Galloway New Writing Scotland 8: The Day I Met the Queen Mother 5:
Rooky ur-stanes, nesh
Wi deid weans' haunprents, sclimmin
Salvatour's tooir. ... Misty stones of the beginning, delicate with handprints of dead children, climbing Salvator's tower.
Dundee 1994 Matthew Fitt in James Robertson A Tongue in Yer Heid 180:
The grund wus nesh an sleekit. It reeshilt unnir the young lad's gutties as he taikit owre atween the tinkers' vans, no waantin tae wauken thair mukkil dugs.

[O.Sc. nesch, soft, a.1400, naysch, soggy, of ground, a.1460, O.E. hnesce, soft, tender. The word survives also in the form ness in place-names referring to wet ground, as Blackness, Wetness (W. M. Alexander Place Names Abd. (S.C.) li.).]

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"Nesh adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/nesh>

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