nef

• IPA^(key): /nɛf/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛf

A 1500s nef from Germany

Borrowed from French nef. Doublet of nave and nau.

nef (plural nefs)

1. An extravagant table ornament and container used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, made in the shape of a ship.

• cadenas
• navicula

Short for numerically effective; introduced by Miles Reid.

nef (not comparable)

1. (algebraic geometry) Of a line bundle on a complete algebraic variety over a field: such that the degree of its restriction to every algebraic curve in the variety is non-negative.
   • 1983, Miles Reid, “Minimal Models of Canonical 3-Folds”, in Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics, volume 1, page 131:

     […] this condition is the numerical consequence of the condition that for some ${\displaystyle m>0}$, the linear system ${\displaystyle |mD|}$ is effective and free; thus nef = "numerically (effective and free)".

• nefness

• ENF, fen

Inherited from Middle French nef, from Old French nef, from Latin nāvem, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us. Displaced by bateau and navire in the sense of "boat".

• IPA^(key): /nɛf/

• Audio (Switzerland)

  (file)

nef f (plural nefs)

1. (obsolete or poetic) vessel, ship
2. (architecture) nave

• → Breton: nev
• → English: nef

• barque
• vaisseau

• “nef”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old Norse nef, from Proto-Germanic *nabją. Cognate with English neb.

• IPA^(key): /nɛːv/
• Rhymes: -ɛːv

nef n (genitive singular nefs, nominative plural nef)

1. nose
2. beak

• taka í nefið (to take snuff)
• fitja upp á nefið (to turn up one's nose)
• með nefið ofan í hvers manns koppi (nosy)
• stökkva upp á nef sér (to flare up, to get angry)
• neflaus
• hafa bein í nefinu

From French neuf.

nef

1. nine

nef

1. new

• nau

From Old French nef, from Latin nāvis, nāvem.

nef f (plural nefs or nefz)

1. boat; ship; watercraft

• French: nef (obsolete or poetic)
  • → Breton: nev
  • → English: nef
• Norman: nef

from Proto-Brythonic *neβ̃, from Proto-Celtic *nemos, from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰos (“cloud”).

nef

1. Heaven, Sky

• naf, nau

From Latin nāvis, nāvem.

nef oblique singular, f (oblique plural nés, nominative singular nef, nominative plural nés)

1. boat; ship; watercraft

• nacele

• Middle French: nef, nau (Parisian dialect)
  • French: nef (obsolete or poetic)
    • → Breton: nev
    • → English: nef
  • Norman: nef
• Poitevin-Saintongeais: nau

From Proto-Germanic *nabją.

nef n (genitive nefs, plural nef)

1. nose
2. beak

• Icelandic: nef; nebbi
• Faroese: nev, nebb, nebbi
• Norn: nev
• Norwegian: nebb
• Old Swedish: næf
  • Swedish: näv (dialectal)
• Danish: næb

nef (nominative plural nefs)

1. nephew
2. niece

From Middle Welsh new, from Old Welsh nem, from Proto-Brythonic *neβ̃, from Proto-Celtic *nemos, from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰos (“cloud”). Cognate with Breton neñv, Cornish nev and Irish neamh.

• IPA^(key): /neːv/
• Rhymes: -eːv

nef f (plural nefoedd, not mutable)

1. (frequently in the plural with singular meaning) heaven

   Synonym: nen

• nwyfre (“firmament, the ether”)
• nyfel (“firmament, the ether”)
• nyfelwy (“firmament, the ether”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “nef”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies