Nasty

How to spell nasty

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nasty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nasty mean?

1. adjectiveHighly unpleasant, offensive, spiteful, or harmful.

Nasty in a sentence

• He left a nasty comment on her work report.

• The milk had turned and gave off a nasty smell.

Where does nasty come from?

Language of origin: Other

The origin of nasty is genuinely murky, which is why scholars hedge on it. It first appears in English in the late 1300s meaning foul, filthy, or disgusting, and the spelling has stayed remarkably stable ever since. One leading suggestion connects it to the Old French word nastre, a shortened form of villenastre meaning infamous or wretched, itself built on vilein, the source of our word villain. A rival theory points to the Dutch nestig, meaning dirty, with the underlying image of a soiled bird's nest. The two proposals are hard to choose between, and the trail goes cold before reliable records begin, so the word's deep roots remain uncertain. What is clear is that the meaning broadened over the centuries from physical filth to unpleasant behaviour, bad weather, and serious harm.

How the word is built

• nast- (foul, dirty)
• -y (adjective suffix)