Etymology

Formally continuing OE nēar or nēor, ME ner was used as the basis for a new comp. derivative nerre, and this is probably what is represented by Gaw 237, 556, 1305 <nerre>.  At issue here is the ME usage of both ner and nerre as positives, to mean ‘near’. Input from ON nær, which is more frequently found with positive than comp. sense in OIcel, is often suggested (thus OED3, TGD, Durkin 2009: 158). But the reinterpretation of comparatives as positive could easily be an endogenous development, esp. with verbs expressing movement (the same thing appears to have happened to MDu naer: see OED) and ON input may therefore not be necessary (thus MED, GDS, Bj., McGee).

PGmc Ancestor

*nēhwaz

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

nær 'near, nearer'
(ONP nær (adv.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far nær, Icel nær, Norw nær, Dan nær, Sw när

OE Cognate

nēar (nWS nēor, nīor) 'near, nearer'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC3a

Attestation

MED has a wide range of citations for the positive usage, from as early as a1225(?OE) Lamb.Hom.(Lamb 487) 137.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 237, 322, 556 etc.; Pe *262, 286, 404; Cl 414, 1558, 1585; Pat 85, 169; WA 400, 489, 1370 etc.

The positive sense ‘near’ is the one putatively influenced by ON, but it is possible to interpret any of these instances in Gaw (or Pe) as positives meaning ‘near, nearly’, as the glossaries in GDS (which however misses out Gaw 322).  The only unambiguously positive occurrence appears to be at Gaw 729, where ner modifies a ppl. adj. (‘ner sleyn’). Most editors (incl. Goll, Osgood, EVG and Moorman etc.) emend MS <here> at Pe 262 to nere, but Hillmann, Morris and Vant maintain the MS reading.

Bibliography

MED nēr (adv.2) , OED3 near (adv.2 and prep.2) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance ner(e), nerre, de Vries nær, Mag nær (1), Bj-L. nær, Bammesberger 257–8, Orel *nēxw(a), Kroonen *nēhwa-, AEW nēar