Níð

Look up níð or níðingr in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In historical Germanic society, níð (Old Norse, in runic: ᚾᛁᚦ, Old English: nīþ, nīð; Old Dutch: nīth) was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is considered a nithing (Old Norse: níðingr, ᚾᛁᚦᛁᚴᛦ, Old English: nīðing, nīðgæst, or Old High German: nidding).

Middle English retained a cognate nithe, meaning 'envy' (compare modern Dutch nijd and modern German Neid), 'hate', or 'malice'.

A related term is ergi, carrying the connotation of 'unmanliness'.

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