noose

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] It is first recorded as inherited from Middle English nose,^[5][6] which most dictionaries take as probably or perhaps borrowed from Old French nos or nous, a form of no or nou (“knot”), the nominative singular and accusative plural of the noun, later noud and now nœud.^{[7][3][8][9][10]} Others name the Occitan cognate, Old Provençal nous (“knot”),^{[6][11][12][13]} and the Middle English Dictionary only compares it.^[5] Skeat thought that sailors brought it from Gascon.^[14] All these forms go back to Latin nōdus (“knot”),^{[2][8][6][11][15]} which Etymonline derives from Proto-Indo-European *ned- (“to bind, tie”).^[9] The Anglo-Norman noun nu (“knot, tie”) is recorded from the early 12th century.^[16] The OED points out that the final -e of the Middle English form and the voiced consonant implied by later spellings with -z- speak against each of these explanations.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loop in a fishing line: about 1450, in the Treatise on Fishing: "Double the lyne & frete hyt fast yn þe top with a nose".^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the idea underlying the word is a knot rather than a loop made with one.^[15] It is rare until about 1600,^[2][9][7] when the spelling noose also appears.^[6] The loop for hanging a person is recorded from 1567, in Golding's translation of Ovid.^[2] From about 1600 the word was also figurative, for anything that snares or binds, and in particular for marriage;^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang has the noose for marriage from 1640.^[17] To put one's neck in a noose first meant to marry, and later more generally to bring trouble on oneself.^[2] The verb, formed from the noun, began about 1604 as "to ensnare"; it meant to catch with a noose from 1638, to marry and to hang from 1664, and to make a noose in a cord from 1815, in Scott.^[2][17] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a running knot that binds closer the more it is drawn, and reported Lye's guess at nosada, "entangled", from the glosses of Lipsius.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – nose, a loop in a line.^[5][2]
• 1567 – the loop used for hanging a person.^[2]
• c. 1600 – figurative, a snare or bond, especially marriage, also to put one's neck in a noose, to marry.^[2]
• c. 1604 – verb, to ensnare.^[2][11]
• 1638 – verb, to catch with a noose.^[2]
• 1639 – verb, to hang.^[17] The OED has 1664.^[2]
• 1664 – verb, to marry.^[2]
• 1815 – verb, to make a noose in a cord.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loop in a rope, cord or wire, usually with a slipknot that tightens as it is pulled, as in a snare or lasso: The trapper set a wire noose beside the rabbit path.^[13][11][2]
2. Such a loop placed around the neck for hanging a person; the hangman's rope.^[2][3][13]
3. Something that traps, restrains or binds, sometimes marriage.^[13][11][2]
4. The free end of a bowstring, tied to the nock of the bow.^[11]
5. put one's head in a noose: to bring about one's own downfall.^[13][3][2]

Verb

1. To catch or secure with a noose, or as if with one: He noosed the calf on the first throw.^[13][11][2]
2. To put to death by hanging.^[11][2][3]
3. To make a noose in or of a cord, or to pass a cord around something as a noose.^[13][11][2]
4. To tie in marriage (rare).^[2][3]

Word family

• nooser
• slip noose

Related words

• node
• nodule
• dénouement
• newel
• net

Usage notes

A pronunciation ending in /z/ is shown by rhyme evidence from 1674 and was listed by D. Jones's pronouncing dictionary up to its fourteenth edition (1977); the OED suggests it may have started in the verb.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.