FromLatinnihil,nil.
- IPA(key): /ˈnɪ.hɪl/,/ˈniː(h)ɪl/,/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪl/,/-əl/
- Rhymes:-aɪəl
nihil (countable anduncountable,pluralnihils)
- (countable, law) Anihil dicit.
- (uncountable, chiefly philosophy)nothingness,nonbeing
- 1996, David Tibet, “The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home (Theinmostlightthirdandfinal)” (lyrics):
- I shall no longer believe all the visions of my youth:
They have dissolved intonihil.
2008, Arvydas Šliogeris,Names of Nihil, page13:All tales about the beginning are apt to eliminate the nothing and make being overall.[…] WithoutNihil the whirlpool of the beginning settles down and becomes a stagnant puddle of pure being.Nihil disappears.
2009, Walter Brueggemann,An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible, page143:That is, in the sovereign act of creation, whereby YHWH orders chaos, YHWH provisionally defeated the power of theNihil but did not destroy or eliminate the threat of chaos.
Unadapted borrowing fromLatinnihil.
nihil
- nothing
- Synonyms:niks,niets,noppes,nada
Borrowed fromDutchnihil, fromLatinnihil.
nihil (comparativelebih nihil,superlativepaling nihil)
- null
- empty
nihil
- (indefinite) The absence of anything;nothing.
Fromnihilum, fromne-(“not”) +hīlum(“the least bit”).
nihil (indeclinable)
- (indefinite)nothing
- Nihil est. ―It'snothing/Itdoesn't matter.
- Nihil sub sōle novum. ―Nothing new under the sun(proverb).
- (withquicquam/quidquam,unum)
c. 194BCE,
Plautus,
PoenulusIII. i. 504-507:
- [Agorastocles] Ita me di ament, tardo amiconihil estquicquam inaequius,
praesertim homini amanti, qui quidquid agit properat omnia.
Sicut ego hos duco advocatos, homines spissigradissimos,
tardiores quam corbitae sunt in tranquillo mari.- [Agorastocles] May gods so love me,nothing is more unfair than having a slothful friend, even more so for a man in love, who in doing anything must all expedite. So I lead them, having called them forth, the most slow-paced men of them all, slower than freight ships [corbitae] upon a quiet sea.
27BCE – 25BCE,
Titus Livius,
Ab Urbe Condita41.20:
- In duabus tamen magnis honestisque rebus vere regius erat animus, in urbium donis et deorum cultu. Megalopolitanis in Arcadia murum se circumdaturum urbi est pollicitus maioremque partem pecuniae dedit; Tegeae theatrum magnificum e marmore facere instituit; cyzici in prytaneo—id est penetrale urbis, ubi publice, quibus is honos datus est, vescuntur—vasa aurea mensae unius posuit. Rhodiis utnihil unum insigne, ita omnis generis, ut quaeque usus eorum postulaverunt, dona dedit.
- (pleaseadd an English translation of this quotation)
- nihil ornil + the enclitic particle-ne,nihilne ornilne — more emphatic in a negative sense, a stronger negative thannōn:nothing atall,not atall,none atall,notany
- Nīl·ne in mentem·st? ―Cannot you think ofanything?
63BCE,
Cicero,
Catiline OrationsOratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.1:
- Nihilne tē nocturnum praesidium Palātī,nihil urbis vigiliae,nihil timor populī,nihil concursus bonōrum omnium,nihil hic mūnītissimus habendī senātūs locus,nihil hōrum ōra voltūsque mōvērunt?
- Nothing at all! —you! — the nightly guard on the Palatine —nothing! — the patrols of the city —nothing! — the fear of the public —nothing! — the union of good people —nothing! — this most fortified place for holding the senate —nothing! — the faces and expressions of these [senators] —has moved [you]?
(A somewhat literal interpretation with indications for spoken emphasis to convey the rhythmical effect of a series of rhetorical questions that exemplifiesanaphora.)
- This pronoun can be used with a neuter nominative/accusative singular adjective (e.g.nihil bonum), or with the genitive singular of a second-declension neuter adjective (e.g.nihil bonī), but it is not used with the genitive singular of third-declension adjectives.
- In Latin, negation is expressed by a single negative word per clause (i.e., Latin does not have negative concord). If another negative word is present, such asnec(“nor, and not”) ornumquam(“never”), the negative polarity pronounquidquam /quicquam(“anything”) is used instead ofnihil(“nothing”) unless the pronoun represents a second, logically distinct negation.
Indeclinable pronoun (used only in the nominative and accusative), singular only.
The senses of the genitive, dative and ablative cases are usually rendered with forms ofnūllus +rēs: genitivenūllīusreī f, dativenūllīreī f, ablativenūllārē f. The genitivenihilī and the ablativenihilō, fromnihilum, are generally not used as indefinite pronouns, but are instead reserved for idiomatic uses (nihilī being used adjectivally with the sense "worth nothing", andnihilō being used in adverbial phrases likedēnihilō(“for no reason, without cause”) andnihilōminus ornihilōminus(“notwithstanding, none the less”)).
nihil (notcomparable)
- (not)at all, in nothing, in no respect
c. 52BCE,
Julius Caesar,
Commentarii de Bello Gallico1.40:
- Quod non fore dicto audientes neque signa laturi dicantur,nihil se ea re commoveri: scire enim, quibuscumque exercitus dicto audiens non fuerit, aut male re gesta fortunam defuisse aut aliquo facinore comperto avaritiam esse convictam.
- That they would neither be listening to orders nor would advance during fight, he wasn't at all moved: he knew perfectly well that so had not happened, under the command of whomsoever soldiers may have refused to comply, but good luck had failed their leader, after having badly handled some situation, or by some crime comitted they had been justly accused of covetousness.
- (rare)to no purpose,in vain; for no reason,for nothing
52BCE – 51BCE,
Cicero,
De legibusLiber I.4:
- [Atticus] Quorsum tandem aut cur ista quaeris?
[Marcvs]Nihil sane, nisi ne nimis diligenter inquiras in ea quae isto modo memoriae sint prodita.- [Atticus] But why, why would you meditate over such things?
[Marcus] Insooth,for no reason, if not that you won't take too close a look at them that be handed down in such a fashion.
- “nihil”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “nihil”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "nihil", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- “nihil”, inGaffiot, Félix (1934),Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894),Latin Phrase-Book[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
- I cannot wait till..:nihil mihi longius est orvidetur quam dum orquam ut
- nothing is more tiresome to me than..:nihil mihi longius est quam (c. Inf.)
- a wise man is in no way affected by this:hoc nihil ad sapientem pertinet
- to live a life free from all misfortune:nihil calamitatis (in vita) videre
- to afford no consolation:nihil habere consolationis
- to considerably (in no way) further the common good:multum (nihil) ad communem utilitatem afferre
- I will refuse you nothing:nihil tibi a me postulanti recusabo
- not to trouble oneself about a thing:nihil omnino curare
- there is nothing I am more interested in than..:nihil antiquius orprius habeo quam ut (nihil mihi antiquius orpotius est, quam ut)
- to live as scrupulously moral a life as ever:nihil ex pristina virtute remittere
- to do no business with a man:nihil cum aliquo contrahere
- not to mention..:ut non (nihil) dicam de...
- but this is not to the point:sed hoc nihil (sane) ad rem
- there is something in what you say; you are more or less right:aliquid (τι) dicis (opp.nihil dicis)
Malay numbers(edit) | | 0 | 1 → [a],[b],[c],[d],[e] | 10 → [a],[b],[c],[d] |
|---|
| Cardinal:(informal)kosong,(formal)sifar,nol,nihil |
Learned borrowing fromLatinnihil.
nihil (Jawi spellingنيهيل)
- zero
- Synonyms:kosong,sifar,nol
