From Old French [Term?], from Latin nativus (“natural”). Doublet of naif and native.
Meanings
(historical) A serf or bondsman born into servitude.
That is, because the girl was his nief, or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains 1886, "The Fight at the Pass of Coleshill", The Red Dragon "Notes and Queries", page 471
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neif
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niefs
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lexicographic
Translations (6)
de Sklave (serf or bondsman born into servitude) · ru раба́ (serf or bondsman born into servitude) · ru раб (serf or bondsman born into servitude) · pl niewolnik (serf or bondsman born into servitude) · de Leibeigene (serf or bondsman born into servitude) · pl niewolnica (serf or bondsman born into servitude)
From Middle English neve (“the clenched hand, fist”), from Old Norse nefi, hnefi (also knefi) ("hand, fist, handful"), from Proto-Germanic *hnefô, from Proto-Indo-European *knep- (“to scrape, scratch, grind”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Scots neif (“fist”), Norwegian neve, Danish næve, Swedish näve, Middle High German nevemez (“handful”).
Meanings
(Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland) A clenched hand; fist.
"But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp when he gets his nief upon him." 2004, Jeff Silverman, The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told, page 160:
Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell[…]. 1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite, Polygon, published 2006, A Scots Quair, page 597:
Nestorius exploded at that and hit out. He roared and dismissed the class, hitting out with his old mottled gnarled niefs. 1989, Anthony Burgess, The Devil's Mode:
(Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland) A handful or fistful.
(Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland) The handgrip of a sword or oar.