British Midlands word meaning "to feel the cold"
This phrase was in popular use in Nottinghamshire during my youth, and has a few layers of meaning. At its simplest, it is simply used to describe someone who over feels the cold, or is susceptible to cold, or afeared of it. I heard my dad refer to my mother as nesh because she always seemed to want the room warmer than he did, and he would run upstairs to fetch her a cardigan, because while he loved her, he loved economy at least as much. If dad was not at home, I might be dispatched to fetch mor coal to put on the fire. That's nesh. in some sense, it can also mean "soft" or vulnerable, a meaning to be understood from context.
Wikionary mentions that the word is possibly used in Scots, and is from From Middle English neschen,via Proto-West Germanic *hnaskwōn (“to make soft”), likely from from Proto-Indo-European *knēs-, *kenes- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Cognate with Old High German nascōn ("to nibble at, parasitise, squander"; > German naschen (“to nibble, pinch”)). It certainly suggsts a softness or fragility, but interestingly may come from the same roo word as nosh, meaning to nibble at.
As I grow older, I find myself more inclined to feel the cold (perhaps my cardiovascular system is not as efficient as of yore. Certainly I wear more layers in the chillier winter weather (even in California we do get a winter, albeit a mild one!)
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