2218: neat Jan 10, 2021

The word ‘neat’ today usually refers to something being tidy, orderly, or even efficient, but this is not how it started. It comes from Latin ‘nitidus’ meaning ‘shine’. Indeed, up until the 16th century the word ‘neat’ meant ‘bright’, though that sense is now lost here but still found in the less common adjective ‘nitid’. It is also a doublet of the adjective ‘net’ as in ‘net profit’, both having the sense of ‘pure; distilled; uncluttered’ similar to describing an alcoholic drink without ice. This is also related to the German ‘nett’ meaning ‘nice’,