Neat
/niːt/noun
Tidily arranged, clean, or elegant; also informal for excellent or impressive.
Did you know?The modern adjective “neat” comes from a completely different old word than the cattle sense, but both show how English can split one sound into separate histories over time.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
nēat
“an animal, especially cattle or a beast of burden”
Middle English
ME
neat
“livestock, cattle”
Late Middle English
ME
neat
“clean, free from dirt; tidy”
16th Century
English
neat
“trim, elegant, well-ordered”
Modern English
English
neat
“tidy, orderly, or impressive”