Nickering

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A gentle, soothing sound produced by horses or similar animals when they are calm or happy
2. A soft, affectionate noise made by equines that conveys a sense of ease and comfort
3. A quiet, gentle sound that horses produce to express calmness or friendliness

Etymology: The verb "nicker" is imitative, meaning it was formed to echo the sound it names. It first appears in print in 1774, but its ancestry runs much deeper. Its oldest forms go back to Old English "nicor," a water-monster, and the same Proto-Germanic root gave German "Nix," a water demon, and "Nixe," a female water-spirit. Old Norse "nykr" carried the same sense, so the horse's whinny and the creature in the lake share a common source. The link is that "nicker" and "nix" are doublets: two words descended from one root that took different paths into English. "Nix" entered through German, while "nicker" came down the native line. The horse sound is the later meaning, and the sense of a sudden, eerie noise may be the connection, though the sources do not spell out that step. One note on the modern usage: the spelling "nigger," a slur, is a separate word, and "nicker" is sometimes mistakenly pronounced as if it were that word, a mispronunciation that has nothing to do with its history.

Synonyms: neighing, whinnying