Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The nave of a church.
- noun An ornamental vessel used for the decoration of the table, having a form resembling a ship of the middle ages.
- noun At the present day, a vessel of any unusual and fantastic shape resembling more or less closely a ship or boat.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The nave of a church.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An extravagant table
ornament andcontainer used in theMiddle Ages andRenaissance , made in the shape of aship .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nef.
Examples
-
A nao was a Portuguese term nef or nau in French for a full-rigged round ship, with large square-rigged sails on two or three masts, sometimes with a lateen-rigged mizzen and a smaller mast called a bonaventure abaft the mizzen.
Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008
-
A nao was a Portuguese term nef or nau in French for a full-rigged round ship, with large square-rigged sails on two or three masts, sometimes with a lateen-rigged mizzen and a smaller mast called a bonaventure abaft the mizzen.
Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008
-
One gene was called nef (for negative factor) because it was thought to inhibit HIV.
ANC Today 2001
-
One gene was called nef (for negative factor) because it was thought to inhibit HIV.
ANC Today 2001
-
The solution according to the nef is the need to unlock the existing "sleeping architecture" of a more robust local financial infrastructure, supported by providers working on the frontline of financial exclusion in the UK.
-
The virus they share lacks portions of "nef," one of HIV's nine genes.
-
This ship was often known as the "nef," and frequently had a name, as if it were the family yacht!
Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison
-
Español · Guadalupe: En mayo de 2009, recuerden mayo de 1802 y mayo de 1967 2009 will definitely be a “new” year in Guadeloupe - at least judging from a pun that people used as their New Year's wish, since in Creole “new” is pronounced “nef” and “nine” is also pronounced “nef”.
Global Voices in English » Guadeloupe: In May 2009, keep May 1802 and May 1967 in mind 2009
-
Preston kathy the dems nef to take a vote if you nef to change a part of the bill then talk about it all the gop thinks about are them selves
-
Unlike the original, it will be dated in a year, and forgotten in two. nef deppard on Jul 4, 2008
Must Watch: First The Day the Earth Stood Still Trailer! « FirstShowing.net 2008
chained_bear commented on the word nef
"Nefs were a particularly British foible, elaborate galleons fashioned from precious metals, designed to hold the finest, whitest salt and set, symbolically, before the lord at the head of the table."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 75
January 8, 2017
chained_bear commented on the word nef
"An illuminated manuscript picture made in 1378 depicts a banquet given some decades earlier by King Charles V of France in honor of the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV and his son (and successor) Wenceslaus. ... In front of them are elaborate gilt saltcellars and spice vessels fashioned in the form of ships. These nefs, as they were termed (that is, ships), would adorn the table throughout the meal, not only fulfilling the function of holding condiments but also serving as centerpieces."
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 32.
This would seem to belie Colquhoun's assertion (below) that nefs were "particularly British."
See also comment on probae.
November 27, 2017