the Hag; a genus of animals belonging to the order of vermes intestina. See HELMINTHOLOGY Index.

N.

N, A liquid consonant, and the 13th letter of the Greek, Latin, English, &c. alphabets.

The n is a nasal consonant: its sound is that of a d, passed through the nose; so that when the nose is stopped by a cold, or the like, it is usual to pronounce d for n. M. Abbé de Dangeau observes, that in the French, the n is frequently a mere nasal vowel, without any thing of the consonant in it. He calls it the Slavonic vowel. The Hebrews call their n nun, which signifies child, as being supposed the offspring of m; partly on account of the resemblance of sound, and partly on that of the figure. Thus from the m, by omitting the last column, is formed n; and thus from the capital N, by omitting the first column, is formed the Greek minuscule ν. Hence for biennies, &c. the Latins frequently use bimnas, &c. and the same people convert the Greek ν, at the end of a word, into an m, as Φαρμακον, pharmacum, &c. See M.

N before p, b, and m, the Latins change into m, and frequently into l and r; as in in-ludo, illudo; irrigo, irrigo, &c.: in which they agree with the Hebrews, who, in lieu of nun, frequently double the following consonants: and the Greeks do the same; as when for Manlius, they write Μαλλιος, &c. The Greeks also, before x, y, z, v, changed the ν into γ: in which they were followed by the ancient Romans: who, for Angulus, wrote Aggulus; for anceps, agceps, &c.

The Latins retrench the n from Greek nouns ending ing in av; as Λων, Leo; Δρακον, Draco; on the contrary, the Greeks add it to the Latin ones ending in o; as Κατον, Neron, Cato, Nero.

N, among the ancients, was a numeral letter, signifying 900; according to the verse in Baronius,

N, quoque nongentos numero defignat habendos.

And when a line was struck over it, N, nine thousand. Among the ancient lawyers, N.L. stood for non liquet, i.e. the cause is not clear enough to pass sentence upon. N, or No, in commerce, &c., is used as an abbreviation of numero, number.