nina

English

Etymology

From the name Nina, taken from the cartoonist Al Hirschfield's habit of hiding his daughter Nina's name in his drawings.

Noun

nina (plural ninas)

1. A hidden message revealed in the completed grid of a crossword.
   • 2008 April 1, Ilan Caron, “Guardian Cryptic Crossword No. 24350 set by Brendan”, in rec.puzzles.crosswords‎ (Usenet):

     The puzzle itself was fairly easy however there was an elegant nina based on the middle entry (INSIDE STORY) in which each of the across answers hid a synonym of "story", e.g. 5A and 6A were: STABle gendER.

   • 2014 August 10, Brian Bethune, “The crossword’s meandering 100-year journey”, in Maclean's‎:

     Ninas may or may not be present and, even if one is there, it can go unnoticed because, not being intrinsic to the solution, its presence is not advertised—or because it is so well hidden.

   • 2014, Alan Connor, The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief, Penguin, →ISBN:

     Other “personal” ninas are happier and subtler: birthday wishes to loved ones, which, ultimately, have only one intended reader

Anagrams

• Inna, inna

Aymara

Noun

nina

1. fire

Catalan

Alternative forms

• nena (child)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

nina f (plural nines, masculine nin)

1. (anatomy) pupil

   Synonym: pupil·la

2. doll
3. (dialectal) girl, female child

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *ninna, a nursery or infantile word.

Noun

nina f

1. mother

Estonian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *nenä.

Noun

nina (genitive nina, partitive nina)

1. (anatomy) nose
2. tip

Declension

Fanagalo

Etymology

From Zulu nina.

Pronoun

nina

1. you, you all; second-person singular pronoun.

Japanese

Romanization

nina

1. Rōmaji transcription of にな

Kamano

Noun

nina

1. Alternative form of ni (water)

References

• The Papuan Languages of New Guinea (1986, →ISBN

Miskito

Noun

nina

1. name

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ni‧na

Noun

nina f (plural ninas)

1. Clipping of menina.

Quechua

Noun

nina

1. fire for cooking, candle, match

Declension

See also

• ninay
• ninayay

Sasak

Noun

nina

1. woman, female

References

• Dictionary of the Sasak language of Lombok, with Indonesian and English (1995)

Southern Ndebele

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *niná.

Pronoun

niná

1. you, you all; second-person plural absolute pronoun.

Sumerian

Romanization

nina

1. Romanization of 𒀏 (nina)

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya)

  (file)

Verb

nina

1. first-person singular present affirmative of -wa na

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /niˈna/,
• Hyphenation: ni‧na

Article

niná (Baybayin spelling ᜈᜒᜈ)

1. possessive particle, used only with personal names

   Synonym: (colloquial) nila

   mga bisikleta nina Juan at Juana ― Juan and Juana's bicycles

2. ergative marker used with personal names, equivalent of ng mga used with common nouns.

Usage notes

• This is used where there is more than one addressee, as a simpler way of saying ni … at ni (e.g. nina Pedro at Juan).
• Where it precedes one name, this refers to the person and others surrounding them (e.g. nina Pedro refers to Pedro and anyone other around him, usually unspecified).

See also

Xhosa

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *niná.

Pronoun

niná

1. you, you all; second-person plural absolute pronoun.

Zulu

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *niná.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /niːná/

Pronoun

niná

1. you, you all; second-person plural absolute pronoun.

Inflection

References

• C. M. Doke, B. W. Vilakazi (1972) “nina”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, →ISBN: “nina (6.3)”