nook

From Middle English noke, nok (“nook, corner, angle”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots neuk, nuk (“corner, angle of a square, angular object”). Perhaps from Old English hnoc, hnocc (“hook, angle”), from Proto-Germanic *hnukkaz, *hnukkô (“a bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *knewg- (“to turn, press”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to pinch, press, bend”). If so, then also related to Scots nok (“small hook”), Norwegian dialectal nok, nokke (“hook, angle, bent object”), Danish nokke (“hook”), Swedish nock (“ridge”), Faroese nokki (“crook”), Icelandic hnokki (“hook”), Dutch nok (“ridge”), Low German Nocke (“tip”), Old Norse hnúka (“to bend, crouch”), Old English ġehnycned (“drawn, pinched, wrinkled”), Finnish nurkka (“(inside) corner”).

• enPR: no͝ok, IPA^(key): /nʊk/
• (obsolete) enPR: no͞ok, IPA^(key): /nuːk/[1]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊk

nook (plural nooks)

1. A small corner formed by two walls; an alcove.

   There was a small broom for sweeping ash kept in the nook between the fireplace bricks and the wall.

2. A hidden or secluded spot; a secluded retreat.

   The back of the used book shop was one of her favorite nooks; she could read for hours and no one would bother her or pester her to buy.

3. A recess, cove or hollow.
   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii], page 3:

     Ariel: Safely in harbour / Is the Kings ſhippe, in the deepe Nooke, where once / Thou calldſt me vp at midnight to fetch dewe / From the ſtill-vext Bermoothes, there ſhe's hid; […]

4. (historical) An English unit of land area, originally ¼ of a yardland but later 12½ or 20 acres.
   • a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, 57:

     You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.

   • 1903, English Dialectical Dictionary, volume IV, page 295:

     Nook, an old legal term for 12½ acres of land; still in use at Alston.

   • 1968, November 9, The Economist, page 2:

     They poured their wine by the aume or the fust, and cut their cloth by the goad—not to be confused with the gawd, which was a measure of steel. Their nook was not cosy; it covered 20 acres.

• (small corner): alcove, recess, ancone
• (unit of area): fardel

• (unit of area): See hundred (16,000 nooks); see carucate (16); see virgate (4); see oxgang (2)

• (unit of area): See fardel (½ nook), see acre (various fractions & for further subdivisions)

• nookery

• inglenook
• any nook or cranny, every nook and cranny, nook and cranny, nook or cranny

• Kono