Nīþ
Loss of honor in Germanic societies / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Nidingr" redirects here. For the band, see Nidingr (band).
In historical Germanic society, nīþ (Old Norse: níð Old English: nīþ, nīð; Old Dutch: nīth) was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is a nīðing (Old Norse: níðingr/ᚾᛁᚦᛁᚴᛦ, Old English: nīðing, nīðgæst, or Old High German: nidding). Middle English retained a cognate nithe, meaning 'envy' (compare modern Dutch nijd and modern German Neid), 'hate', or 'malice'.[1]
A related term is ergi, carrying the connotation of 'unmanliness'.