nettle
/ˈnɛtəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.71 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
noun
Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
Example Sentences
- "The children were badly nettled after playing in the field."
- "[…] I am whipp’d and scourged with rods, / Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear / Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke."
- "[T]his is no lavv unto the vvoof of the neat Retiarie Spider, vvhich ſeems to vveave vvithout tranſverſion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued ſurface, vvhich is beyond the common art of Textury, and may ſtill nettle Minerva the Godeſſe of that myſtery."
- "His Miſtreſs: vvhoſe Miſtreſs, vvhat Miſtreſs; s'life hovv that little vvord has nettled me!"
- "I saw Mr. Williams was a little nettled at my Impatience […]"
- "Liu, whose political writings had nettled the Taiwanese authorities, was assassinated on October 15, last year, in Daly City […]"
Etymology
From Middle English netle, netel, from Old English netle, netele, netel, from Proto-West Germanic *natilā (cognate with Old Saxon netila, Middle Dutch netele (modern Dutch netel), German Nessel, Middle Danish nædlæ (“nettle”)), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *natǭ (of unknown origin, perhaps from the same source as net).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: netle, *natilā, *natǭ