n.
'rock'
(Modern English nab)Always derived from ON, cp. Icel nabbi 'protuberance, pimple, point, knol', which is attested only from the 17c. as a common noun, but occurs as a dwarf name in the eddic poem Hyndluljóð. On the same base, cp. e.g. PGmc *naƀjan (cp. OIcel nef 'nose, beak', OE neb, nebb 'bill, beak, beak-shaped thing', MLG nebbe 'beak, bill').
PGmc Ancestor
*naƀ-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
Nabbi (dwarf name)
(ONP Nabbi (CV))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel nabbi, Norw nabb, nabbe, Dan nabbe, Sw nabbe
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C1c
This is the earliest textual attestation of the n. in English, which doesn't occur again until the 17c. It does, however, occur as place-name element from the late 12c. in the N and Northamptonshire (see MED, EPNE, OED3).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
WA 5495