nosþyrel

• næsþyrel

From nosu (“nose”) +‎ þyrel (“hole”). Cognate with Old Frisian nosterle (“nostril”).

Compare also Middle Low German noster, nüster (whence German Nüster), which is usually regarded as a different construct, however.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnosˌθy.rel/

nosþyrel n (nominative plural nosþyrlu)

1. nostril
   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Preface to Genesis"

     God ġesċōp ūs twā ēagan and twā ēaran, twā nosþirlu and twēġen weoloras, twā handa and twēġen fēt.

     God gave us two eyes and two ears, two nostrils and two lips, two hands and two feet.

   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Moyses, ðurh Godes mihte, āwende eal heora wæter tō rēadum blōde, and hē āfylde eal heora land mid froggon, and siððan mid gnættum, eft mid hundes lūsum, ðā flugon into heora mūðe and heora næsðyrlum; and sē Ælmihtiġa ðone mōdiġan cyning mid þām eaðelicum ġesċeaftum swā gėswencte...

     Moses, through the power of God, turned all their water into red blood, and filled all of their land with frogs, and then with gnats, and afterwards with dogflies, which flew into their mouths and their nostrils; the Almighty punished their proud king in that way with every kind of creature...

Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: nostrille, nostrelle
  • English: nostril
• Middle English: nosethirl, nosethrille, nosethurl, nosethrul, nosetherel, nosethrel, nosethorl, nosederl, nosetrel, nosesterl
  • English: nosethirl (archaic)

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “nos-þyrel”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.