The Unusual Word Nesh

My father would often use the word ‘nesh’. No one else I know has ever used it nor when asked, knows of it. It got me to wondering when I recently said to someone that they were nesh and they asked me what that meant.

Wikipedia has the word and the meaning that I recall from childhood. It says “Nesh is an English dialect adjective meaning unusually susceptible to cold weather and there is no synonym for this use. Usage has been recorded in Cheshire, Staffordshire, the East Midlands, Lancashire, South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire.”

My father’s maternal grandmother was from Lancashire and I am thinking it may have come into usage in the family from her. He always used it if I said I was cold, and he didn’t think it was so. He would then say that I was nesh. When I realised no one else in New Zealand knew of the expression, I ceased using it except with my wife, who is very nesh I might add. She now uses it when talking of others who complain of the cold weather.

So the word is approximately of north west England origin. The Wiki article talks of possible origins, but I am happy that it is very much a real word. I feel it merits wider usage. So if anyone you know complains of the cold and you think they are making too much of it, just call them nesh.