niht

niht (plural nihtes)

1. Alternative form of nighte

• næht, neaht, nieht, neht, nyht

From Proto-Germanic *nahts, from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts. Cognate with Old Frisian nacht (West Frisian nacht), Old Saxon naht (Low German nacht), Old High German naht (German Nacht), Old Norse nátt (Icelandic nótt, Norwegian Bokmål natt), Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts); and with Ancient Greek νύξ (núx), Latin nox, Proto-Slavic *noťь (Russian ночь (nočʹ)).

• IPA^(key): /niht/, [niçt]

niht f

1. Night, particularly:
   1. the time between sunset and sunrise
      • Bede, Leechdoms, III, 242:

        Sēo niht hæfþ seofon dǣlas fram þǣre sunnan setlunge oþ hiere ūpgang.

        The night has seven parts from sunset to sunrise.

      Gōde niht!

      Good night!

      On niht biþ sēo ēa ġīet wlitiġre þanne on dæġ.

      The river is even more beautiful at night than in the daytime.

      Mæġ hē hēr ofer niht wunian?

      Can he stay here overnight?

   2. darkness
      • late 10th century, Ælfric, The Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost

        Þā ȳtran þīestru is sēo swearte niht þǣre ēċan ġeniðerunge.

        The outer darkness is the black night of the eternal judgment.

2. Day (when computing spans of time).

   for tīen nihtum

   ten days ago

• dæġ

• Middle English: nighte, night, nyght, nyghte, niȝt, naht, niht, nyȝt, nyȝte, nyhte
  • English: night
  • Scots: nicht, neicht

• niht in Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary