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countable and uncountable, plural nihils
(countable, law) A nihil dicit. examples
(uncountable, chiefly philosophy) nothingness, nonbeing quotations examples
I shall no longer believe all the visions of my youth:They have dissolved into nihil.
1996, David Tibet, “The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home (Theinmostlightthirdandfinal)” (lyrics)
All tales about the beginning are apt to eliminate the nothing and make being overall. […] Without Nihil the whirlpool of the beginning settles down and becomes a stagnant puddle of pure being. Nihil disappears.
2008, Arvydas Šliogeris, Names of Nihil, page 13
That is, in the sovereign act of creation, whereby YHWH orders chaos, YHWH provisionally defeated the power of the Nihil but did not destroy or eliminate the threat of chaos.
2009, Walter Brueggemann, An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible, page 143