Chapter Nidhogg to Nine of N by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Nilica or Sephalica. A plant in the blossoms of which the bees sleep.

Nimble as a Cat on a hot Bake-stone In a great hurry to get away. The bake-stone in the north is a large stone on which bread and oat-cakes are baked.
Nimble as Ninepence (See Ninepence .)

Nimbus characterises authority and power, not sanctity. The colour indicates the character of the person so invested:- The nimbus of the Trinity is gold; of angels, apostles, and the Virgin Mary, either red or white; of ordinary saints, violet; of Judas, black, of Satan, some very dark colour. The form is generally a circle or half-circle, but that of Deity is often triangular.
   The nimbus was used by heathen nations long before painters introduced it into sacred pictures of saints, the Trinity, and the Virgin Mary. Proserpine was represented with a nimbus; the Roman emperors were also decorated in the same manner, because they were divi.

Nimini Pimini Affected simplicity. Lady Emily, in the Heiress, tells Miss Alscrip the way to acquire the paphian Mimp is to stand before a glass and keep pronouncing nimini pimini. “The lips cannot fail to take the right plie.” (General Burgoyne, iii. 2.)
   This conceit has been borrowed by Charles Dickens in his Little Dorrit, where Mrs. General tells Amy Dorrit-

“Papa gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism. You will find it serviceable if you say to yourself on entering a room, Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism, prunes and prism. ”

Nimrod “A mighty hunter before the Lord” (Gen. x. 9), which the Targum says means a “sinful hunting of the sons of men.” Pope says of him, he was “a mighty hunter, and his prey was man;” so also Milton interprets the phrase. (Paradise Lost, xii. 24, etc.)
   The legend is that the tomb of Nimrod still exists in Damascus, and that no dew ever “falls” upon it, even though all its surroundings are saturated with it.
   Nimrod. Any tyrant or devastating warrior.
   Nimrod, in the Quarterly Review, is the nom-de-plume of Charles James Apperley, of Denbighshire, who was passionately fond of hunting. Mr. Pittman, the proprietor, kept for him a stud of hunters. His best productions are The Chase, the Turf, and the Road. (1777- 1843.)

Nincompoop A poor thing of a man. Said to be a corruption of the Latin non compos [mentis], but of this there is no evidence.

Nine Nine, five, and three are mystical numbers- the diapason, diapente, and diatrion of the Greeks. Nine consists of a trinity of trinities. According to the Pythagorean numbers, man is a full chord, or eight notes, and deity comes next. Three, being the trinity, represents a perfect unity, twice three is the perfect dual, and thrice three is the perfect plural. This explains the use of nine as a mystical number, and also as an exhaustive plural, and consequently no definite number, but a simple representative of plural perfection. (See Diapason .)
   (1) Nine indicating perfection or completion: -
   Deucalion's ark, made by the advice of Prometheus, was tossed about for nine days, when it stranded on the top of Mount Parnassus.
   Rigged to the nines or Dressed up to the nines. To perfection from head to foot.
   There are nine earths. Hela is goddess of the ninth. Milton speaks of “nine-enfolded spheres.” (Arcades.)
   There are nine worlds in Niflheim.
   There are nine heavens. (See Heavens.)
   Gods. Macaulay makes Porsena swear by the nine gods. (See Nine Gods.)
   There are nine orders of angels. (See Angels.)
   There are the nine korrigan or fays of Armorica.
   There were nine muses.
   There were nine Gallicenæ or virgin priestesses of the ancient Gallic oracle. The serpents or Nagas of Southern Indian worship are nine in number.
   There are nine worthies (q.v.); and nine worthies of London. (See Worthies.)
   There were nine rivers of hell, according to classic mythology. Milton says the gates of hell are “thrice three-fold; three folds are brass, three iron, three of adamantine rock. They had nine folds, nine plates, and nine linings.” (Paradise Lost, ii. 645.)
   Fallen angels. Milton says, when they were cast out of heaven, “Nine days they fell.” (Paradise Lost, vi. 871.)
   Vulcan, when kicked out of heaven, was nine days falling, and then lighted on the island Lemnos.
   Nice as ninepence. (See Nice.)
   (2) Examples of the use of nine as an exhaustive plural: -
   Nine tailors make a man does not mean the number nine in the ordinary acceptation, but simply the plural of tailor without relation to number. As a tailor is not so robust and powerful as the ordinary run of men, it requires more than one to match a man. (See Tailors.)
   A nine days' wonder is a wonder that lasts more than a day; here