nyao

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English

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Etymology

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From the Japanese onomatopoeia にゃお (nyao).

Interjection

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nyao

  1. (anime and manga fandom) The cry of a cat; meow, miaow.
    Synonyms: nya, nyaa, nyan
    • 1994 December 13, Mark Maestas, “Dream Tournament 3: Round 1 Results, Part 2”, in rec.games.video.arcade[1] (Usenet):
      Scorpion's body dropped to the ground as Felicia turned back into a cat. With a barely audible "nyao," she then began to lick and clean herself off.
    • 1997 August 16, Terra, “[XOver] [FanFic] Star98 - Episode 2: The Lost Senshi”, in rec.arts.anime.fandom[2] (Usenet):
      Luna looked at me with a very skeptical face, "Nyao?!"
      It must have been a cat's way of saying, 'You've got to be kidding!'
    • 2001 March 25, Aylakitty [username], “Re: If AFD was a family...”, in alt.fan.digimon[3] (Usenet):
      I'd Be The Family Kitty Cat! Nyao! Heehee! :::lies down on a rug and purrs:::
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:nyao.

Anagrams

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Ternate

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Etymology

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From Proto-North Halmahera *nawok (fish).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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nyao (Jawi ڽاو)

  1. a fish

References

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  • Frederik Sigismund Alexander de Clercq (1890) Bijdragen tot de kennis der Residentie Ternate, E.J. Brill
  • Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh