neb - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
neb n The beak of a bird; the nose. Hence vb To be nosy. [< Middle English nebbe < Old English nebb; oed neb n 1 ‘the beak or bill of a bird’ c1000→, 2 ‘a person’s nose’ c1000→, now chiefly Scottish, northern Irish English, and northern English; snd neb n 1 ‘the beak or bill of a bird … the nose(tip) of a person’]
Ulst.:
1733 North Country Grace 29 Bless us free aw Witches and Warlocks, and aw lang nebbed Things that creeps intill Heather; but fre that exhorbitant Power of France, oh, deliver us!
c1800 Thomson (in 1992 Scott and Robinson Samuel Thomson 96) An wifes, forsooth, wi’ nebs like snipes, / Stan’ out frae cheeks, like scrapit tripes.
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 72 = the nose, a bird’s bill.
1891 Simmons Armagh Words and Phrases 13 = the nose, or beak, or a point.
1932 Quinn McConaghy’s Money 21 Will ye stop pushin’ yer neb in where it’s not wanted?
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 195 = (1) a bird’s beak; (2) the tip or point of anything.
c1955 Montgomery Heard in Ulster 89 = human nose: ‘Keep yer neb oot o’ my affairs’.
1991 O’Kane You Don’t Say 97 = the nose, the face generally: ‘She has a right neb on her today’ (i.e. she is looking none too pleased).
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 162 pit yer neb in = interfere in (a conversation, verbal dispute, etc.)
U.S.:
1834 Downing Life Andrew Jackson 70 Hit him in the pudding bag, make a pen of his neb, lush his muzzle with pokeberry juice.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 43 = the nose, the beak of a bird.
1950 Dalton Wordlist 23 Keep your neb out of things that don’t consarn you.
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)
