well-nigh

From Middle English wel-neigh (“physically close to; near in time to; almost, nearly; closely”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English wel nēah, wel nēh, from wel (“well”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + nēah, nēh (“close, near”) (ultimate from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to attain, reach”)). Synchronically a univerbation of well (“completely, fully; to a significant degree”) +‎ nigh (“close by, near”).[2]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌwɛlˈnaɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ

well-nigh (not comparable)

1. Almost, nearly.

   Synonyms: (Britain, dialectal) fornigh, just about, virtually, well-near; see also Thesaurus:almost, Thesaurus:approximately

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 22, page 9:

     The ſame ſo ſore annoyed has the Knight, / That welnigh choked with the deadly ſtinke, / His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.

   • 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Antiquary. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 70:

     The household cock had given his first summons, and the night was well nigh spent.

   • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “[Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman] The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. [Night 560.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], volume VI, Shammar edition, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 59:

     […] Sindbad the Seaman continued:—So when I escaped drowning and reached the island which afforded me fruit to eat and water to drink, I returned thanks to the Most High and glorified Him; after which I sat till nightfall, hearing no voice and seeing none inhabitant. Then I lay down, well-nigh dead for travail and trouble and terror, and slept without surcease till morning, […]

   • 1890, William James, “The Stream of Thought”, in The Principles of Psychology […] (American Science Series—Advanced Course), volume I, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 231:

     This is what makes off-hand testimony about the subjective identity of different sensations well-nigh worthless as a proof of the fact.

   • 1910, Erwin Rosen [pseudonym; Erwin Carlé], “A Hundred Thousand Heroes—A Hundred Thousand Victims”, in In the Foreign Legion, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, page 137:

     Five years ago the officers determined to build a new mess. There was only one objection to the fulfilment of this wish: the regimental coffers were wellnigh empty.

   • 1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, “Phonology of the Foreign Element: English”, in The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language […], part I (Introduction, Phonology), Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 381, page 633:

     From the third quarter of the 18th century, there has been a steady accession of English words into Bengali, and through an intimate knowledge of the English language and English culture among the educated classes—and 'educated' is now almost synonymous with 'educated in English'—an unending stream of English words is now being admitted into Bengali; and the process was never more active than at the present moment: so that it is well-nigh impossible now to estimate the English element in Bengali, alike in its extent and in its phonology.

   • 1939 July, “Pertinent Paragraphs: Port Victoria”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 67:

     Derelict and well-nigh forgotten, Port Victoria now watches the great ships on the Medway—ships that might have berthed in its docks.

• fornigh
• nigh
• nigh on