nisba

English

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nisba

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• nesba, nisbah, nisbat, nisbe

Etymology

From Arabic نِسْبَة (nisba).

Noun

nisba (plural nisbas)

1. An Arabic derivational adjective formed with the suffix ـِيّ m (-iyy) / ـِيَّة f (-iyya), or the equivalent construction in another Semitic (or other Afroasiatic) language.
2. The part of an Arabic name consisting in such an adjective.
   • 2013, Zouhair Ghazzal, The grammars of adjudication: The economics of judicial decision making in fin-de-siècle Ottoman Beirut and Damascus‎:

     Knowing the nisbas of the litigants and their representatives was the qāḍī's single most important preliminary task.

Translations

grammar term

Arabic: نِسْبَة (ar) f (nisba) German: Nisbe f Malay: nisbah (ms) Persian: نسبه (nesbe) Russian: ни́сба f (nísba) Tajik: нисба (nisba) Turkish: nispet eki (tr) Uyghur: نىسبەت (nisbet)

See also

• -i (English suffix derived from Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy))

Anagrams

• Bains, Basin, Bians, IBANs, Ibans, Nabis, Sabin, bains, basin, nabis, naibs, nisab, sabin

Italian

Etymology

Sometimes hypothesized to be from German nichts or nix da.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈni.zba/
• Rhymes: -izba
• Hyphenation: nì‧sba

Adverb

nisba

1. (colloquial, regional) nix, none

   Synonyms: nulla, niente, (colloquial, jocular) nix

   • 1959, La cambiale:

     - Lei testimoni li ha?
     - Eh, l'avvocato! Testimoni - nisba!
     - E allora lo facciamo venire.
     - A chi?
     - A Nisba.
     - No, dicevo "nisba". Nessuno!

     - Do you have any witnesses?
     - Well, a lawyer! Witnesses, nix!
     - Then we'll have him come here.
     - Who?
     - Nix.
     - No, I meant "nix", no one!

References

1. in Festschrift für Giovan Battista Pellegrini (1991, →ISBN, edited by Johannes Kramer), page 322: Als Beispiel eines Germanismus sei nisba "nichts" angeführt, das sich aus deutsch nix (da) ableitet und in Norditalien eine Entsprechung mit lomb. nies aufweist; ...

Further reading

• nisba in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana