well-nigh
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌwɛlˈnaɪ/
rhymes: -aɪ
Etymology: From Middle English wel-neigh (“physically close to; near in time to; almost, nearly; closely”) [and other forms], from Old English wel nēah, wel nēh, from wel (“well”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + nēah, nēh (“close, near”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to attain, reach”)). Synchronically a univerbation of well (“completely, fully; to a significant degree”) + nigh (“close by, near”).
Senses: examples: text: The ſame ſo ſore annoyed has the Knight, / That welnigh choked with the deadly ſtinke, / His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 22, page 9:
text: The household cock had given his first summons, and the night was well nigh spent.
ref: 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Antiquary. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 70:
text: […] Sindbad the Seaman continued:—So when I escaped drowning and reached the island which afforded me fruit to eat and water to drink, I returned thanks to the Most High and glorified Him; after which I sat till nightfall, hearing no voice and seeing none inhabitant. Then I lay down, well-nigh dead for travail and trouble and terror, and slept without surcease till morning, […]
ref: 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “[Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman] The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. [Night 560.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VI, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 59:
text: This is what makes off-hand testimony about the subjective identity of different sensations well-nigh worthless as a proof of the fact.
ref: 1890, William James, “The Stream of Thought”, in The Principles of Psychology […] (American Science Series—Advanced Course), volume I, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 231:
text: Five years ago the officers determined to build a new mess. There was only one objection to the fulfilment of this wish: the regimental coffers were wellnigh empty.
ref: 1910, Erwin Rosen [pseudonym; Erwin Carlé], “A Hundred Thousand Heroes—A Hundred Thousand Victims”, in In the Foreign Legion, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, page 137:
text: From the third quarter of the 18th century, there has been a steady accession of English words into Bengali, and through an intimate knowledge of the English language and English culture among the educated classes—and 'educated' is now almost synonymous with 'educated in English'—an unending stream of English words is now being admitted into Bengali; and the process was never more active than at the present moment: so that it is well-nigh impossible now to estimate the English element in Bengali, alike in its extent and in its phonology.
ref: 1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, “Phonology of the Foreign Element: English”, in The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language […], part I (Introduction, Phonology), Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 381, page 633:
text: Derelict and well-nigh forgotten, Port Victoria now watches the great ships on the Medway—ships that might have berthed in its docks.
ref: 1939 July, “Pertinent Paragraphs: Port Victoria”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 67:
text: Directed by Christopher Gans[…] and scripted by Roger Avary, who shared an Oscar with Tarantino for the screenplay of Pulp Fiction, Silent Hill is a well-nigh incomprehensible horror movie made in Canada and set in a West Virginian ghost town.
ref: 2006 April 22, Philip French, “Silent Hill”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: word: fornigh
word: just about
word: virtually
word: well-near
word: all but
word: almost
word: as good as
word: as near as makes no difference
word: close to
word: fornigh
word: just about
word: more or less
word: near
word: near as damn it
word: nearly
word: next to
word: nigh
word: nigh on
word: nighwhat
word: not quite
word: practically
word: pretty much
word: tantamount to
word: well-nigh
word: virtually
word: -ish
word: about
word: all but
word: almost
word: approaching
word: around
word: by and large
word: circa
word: close
word: close to
word: essentially
word: for all practical purposes
word: fornigh
word: give or take
word: imprecisely
word: just about
word: kind of
word: loosely
word: more or less
word: nearly
word: near
word: nearabout
word: nigh on
word: odd
word: or so
word: plus or minus
word: roundly
word: roughly
word: say
word: some
word: -some
word: sort of
word: thereabout
word: virtually
word: well-nigh
word: ±
glosses: Almost, nearly.
Related terms: fornigh
nigh
nigh on