Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗Dirty, filthy. · Contemptible, unpleasant (of a person). · Objectionable, unpleasant (of a thing); repellent, offensive. · Indecent or offensive; obscene, lewd.
To besmirch, to befoul.
Something nasty. · Sexual intercourse. · A video nasty.
From Middle English nasty, nasti, naxty, naxte (“unclean, filthy”), whence also Early Modern English nasky (“nasty”), of obscure origin. Probably from earlier Middle English *naskty, *naskedy, from Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”) + -y, ultimately of North Germanic origin (comparable to Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”), Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”), Swedish naskig, naskug (“nasty, dirty, messy”)), themselves all probably related to Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”). Likely doublet of nesh and nosh. Cognate with Scots nastie, nestie (“dirty, filthy”). Alternative theories have also been proposed, which include: * From Low German nask (“nasty”) + -y. * Middle Dutch nestich, nistich ("nasty, dirty, unpleasant" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)), perhaps ultimately connected to the Scandinavian word above, or related to *nest (“nest”). * From Old French nastre (“lowly, strange”), shortened form of villenastre (“infamous, bad”), from vilein (“villain”) + -astre (pejorative suffix), from Latin -aster. * Other suggestions include Old High German naz (“wet”), hardening of English nesh(y) (“soft”), or alteration of English naughty. * Modern use of the word is sometimes attributed to the popular and often derogatory 19th century American political cartoons of Thomas Nast, but the word predates him.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionnastyenm
- Cognate mentionnaskyen · nasty
- Derivation mention*nasktyenm
- Derivation mention*naskedenm · dirty, messy
- Cognate mentionnasketda · dirty, foul, unpleasant
- Cognate mentionnaskotsv · dirty, filthy
- Cognate mentionnaskigsv
- Derivation mention*hnaskuzgem-pro · tender, soft
- Doublet mentionneshen
- Doublet mentionnoshen
- Cognate mentionnastiesco
- Derivation mentionnasknds · nasty
- Borrowed-form mentionnestichdum
- Cognate mentionnestignl · dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky
- Derivation mentionnastrefro · lowly, strange
- Derivation mention-asterla
- Derivation mentionnazgoh · wet
This page abbreviates 4 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "nasty"
},
"expansion": "Middle English nasty"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "nasky",
"t": "nasty"
},
"expansion": "English nasky (“nasty”)"
},
{
"name": "unc",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"title": "obscure",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "obscure"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "*naskty"
},
"expansion": "Middle English *naskty"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "*nasked",
"t": "dirty, messy"
},
"expansion": "Middle English *nasked (“dirty, messy”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmq",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "North Germanic"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "nasket",
"t": "dirty, foul, unpleasant"
},
"expansion": "Danish nasket (“dirty, foul, unpleasant”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "naskot",
"t": "dirty, filthy"
},
"expansion": "Swedish naskot (“dirty, filthy”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "naskig"
},
"expansion": "Swedish naskig"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*hnaskuz",
"t": "tender, soft"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *hnaskuz (“tender, soft”)"
},
{
"name": "doublet",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "nesh",
"3": "nosh",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "doublet of nesh and nosh"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sco",
"2": "nastie"
},
"expansion": "Scots nastie"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "nds",
"3": "nask",
"t": "nasty"
},
"expansion": "Low German nask (“nasty”)"
},
{
"name": "suf",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "",
"3": "y",
"id2": "adjectival"
},
"expansion": "+ -y"
},
{
"name": "bor",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dum",
"3": "nestich"
},
"expansion": "Middle Dutch nestich"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "nestig",
"t": "dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky"
},
"expansion": "Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)"
},
{
"name": "gloss",
"args": {
"1": "\"nasty, dirty, unpleasant\" > Modern Dutch <i class=\"Latn mention\" lang=\"nl\">nestig</i> (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”)"
},
"expansion": "(\"nasty, dirty, unpleasant\" > Modern Dutch nestig (“dirty, filthy, unclean; lazy, cranky”))"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fro",
"3": "nastre",
"t": "lowly, strange"
},
"expansion": "Old French nastre (“lowly, strange”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "la",
"3": "-aster"
},
"expansion": "Latin -aster"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "goh",
"3": "naz",
"t": "wet"
},
"expansion": "Old High German naz (“wet”)"
},
{
"name": "noncog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "nesh",
"3": "nesh(y)",
"t": "soft"
},
"expansion": "English nesh(y) (“soft”)"
},
{
"name": "noncog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "naughty"
},
"expansion": "English naughty"
}
],
"links": [
[
"nasty",
"nasty#Middle_English"
],
[
"nasti",
"nasti#Middle_English"
],
[
"naxty",
"naxty#Middle_English"
],
[
"naxte",
"naxte#Middle_English"
],
[
"nasky",
"nasky#English"
],
[
"*naskty",
"Reconstruction:Middle English/naskty"
],
[
"*naskedy",
"Reconstruction:Middle English/naskedy"
],
[
"*nasked",
"Reconstruction:Middle English/nasked"
],
[
"-y",
"-y#Middle_English"
],
[
"nasket",
"nasket#Danish"
],
[
"naskot",
"naskot#Swedish"
],
[
"naskig",
"naskig#Swedish"
],
[
"naskug",
"naskug#Swedish"
],
[
"*hnaskuz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hnaskuz"
],
[
"nesh",
"nesh#English"
],
[
"nosh",
"nosh#English"
],
[
"nastie",
"nastie#Scots"
],
[
"nestie",
"nestie#Scots"
],
[
"nask",
"nask#Low_German"
],
[
"-y",
"-y#English:_adjectival"
],
[
"nestich",
"nestich#Middle_Dutch"
],
[
"nistich",
"nistich#Middle_Dutch"
],
[
"Dutch",
"w:Dutch language"
],
[
"nestig",
"nestig#Dutch"
],
[
"*nest",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/nest"
],
[
"nastre",
"nastre#Old_French"
],
[
"villenastre",
"villenastre#Old_French"
],
[
"vilein",
"vilein#Old_French"
],
[
"-astre",
"-astre#Old_French"
],
[
"pejorative",
"pejorative"
],
[
"-aster",
"-aster#Latin"
],
[
"naz",
"naz#Old_High_German"
],
[
"nesh(y)",
"nesh#English"
],
[
"naughty",
"naughty#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Dirty, filthy.",
"Contemptible, unpleasant (of a person).",
"Objectionable, unpleasant (of a thing); repellent, offensive.",
"Indecent or offensive; obscene, lewd."
],
"tags": [
"US"
],
"recordId": "c5ed1f994ad82dd43ee265fa258a994e728323a69dc987156fa4cbff647f20bd",
"rawRecordSha256": "1faebf6a0ab1599fccbc351cd37d87bcc348c2c263ac0a8d4b0d040b37a11efe",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 161005
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To besmirch, to befoul."
],
"tags": [
"also",
"figuratively",
"reflexive",
"transitive"
],
"recordId": "ce20d440d2ba6c4ac1369c7a4d6860fbd088f84d01e1dc232fc8bc596e212ec5",
"rawRecordSha256": "785970a04df79f09e09bde8ad6d30a3177dfda4f526abdd13a182073a9cbb998",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 161007
},
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"Something nasty.",
"Sexual intercourse.",
"A video nasty."
],
"tags": [
"informal",
"euphemistic",
"slang"
],
"recordId": "d9d212dfb5dffcd7f1665cc81e0550231d120a3fdae1c54b8f73a6739457ea13",
"rawRecordSha256": "e9efe912997a76f2f2a4e18e90d93e69924e085b6fce913c751936bb0b70bb87",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 161006
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 4,
"glosses": 0
}
}