Fist vs Nief - What's the difference?
fist | nief |
hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward
(printing) the pointing hand symbol
(ham radio) the characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code
(slang) a person's characteristic handwriting
A group of men.
The talons of a bird of prey.
* Spenser
(informal) An attempt at something.
* 2005 , Darryl N. Davis, Visions of Mind: Architectures for Cognition and Affect (page 144)
To strike with the fist.
To close (the hand) into a fist.
* 1969 , Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor , Penguin 2011, p. 29:
To grip with a fist.
* 1851 ,
(slang) To fist-fuck.
A serf or bondsman born into servitude.
* 1886 , "The Fight at the Pass of Coleshill", The Red Dragon "Notes and Queries", page 471
(chiefly, Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) A fist.
*1934 , (Lewis Grassic Gibbon), Grey Granite'', Polygon 2006 (''A Scots Quair ), p. 597:
*:Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell….
* 1989 , (Anthony Burgess), The Devil's Mode :
* 2004 , Jeff Silverman, The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told , p. 160:
As nouns the difference between fist and nief
is that fist is the act of breaking wind; fise while nief is a serf or bondsman born into servitude.As a verb fist
is to break wind.As an initialism FIST
is future Infantry Soldier Technology.fist
English
(Webster 1913)Etymology 1
From (etyl) fisten, fiesten, from (etyl) .Derived terms
* (l)Etymology 2
From (etyl) fist, from (etyl) 'five'. More at five.Noun
(en noun)- The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
- More light than culver in the falcon's fist .
- With the rise of cognitive neuroscience, the time may be coming when we can make a reasonable fist of mapping down from an understanding of the functional architecture of the mind to the structural architecture of the brain.
Synonyms
* bunch of fives * fist-size * ductusDerived terms
* fisty * iron fist * hand over fist * fistful * rule with an iron fistVerb
(en verb)- ...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball.'' Damian Cullen. "Running the rule." ''The Irish Times 18 Aug 2003, pg. 52.
- He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
- I am an officer; but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-fashioned beef in the fore-castle, as I used to when I was before the mast.
See also
* knuckle * punchAnagrams
* *nief
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- That is, because the girl was his nief , or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains
Alternative forms
* neifEtymology 2
From Old Norse hnefi'', ''nefi , of unknown origin.Noun
(en-noun)- Nestorius exploded at that and hit out. He roared and dismissed the class, hitting out with his old mottled gnarled niefs .
- "But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp when he gets his nief upon him."