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noble

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Etymology and origin of the French word noble

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis
Borrowed from
Latin nobilis
Ultimate origin
Latin nōscō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin nobilis
French noble
From the same root
Latin nobilitas ← nobilis
Latin nobilito ← nobilis

Pronunciation

Forms

noble (plural nobles)[1] Older Old French nobilie (1080) and nobile (1135), which noble displaced.[2] The Chanson de Roland has both noble and nobile.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nōbilis (“knowable; well known, famous; well-born”).[4][2][5][6][7] The older Old French nobilie was a semi-learned form, from a Latin variant *nobilius or from the Latin adjective with its stress shifted in Gallo-Romance.[2] The Latin adjective is derived from nōscō (“to get to know”), the base of cognōscō and so of connaître;[2][4][8] Littré compared ignōbilis and Sanskrit ज्ञा (jñā, “to know”).[3] The sense “of high birth” in French follows Medieval Latin, where the word was used of the hereditary aristocracy of the Germanic peoples and then of the feudal nobility.[2][4]

Cognate with Romanian nobil, Italian nobile, Occitan noble, Catalan noble, Spanish noble and Portuguese nobre.[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1050 in the Vie de saint Alexis, where the bride chosen for the saint is filie d'un noble Franc, with the sense “superior in worth or merit”;[4][2][8] the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has Noble baron ad ci!.[4]

Semantic evolution

The qualitative sense came first: of people, of a horse (1160–1174, Wace), of things such as noble chevalerie (about 1165), of the body's vital organs (1314, membre noble), and of a science (1370–1372, Oresme).[4][2] From the 17th century it was used of a lofty style and of the higher literary genres, as opposed to bas (1674, Boileau).[2] In Renart (about 1179) Noble is the name of the lion, the king of the beasts.[4]

The social sense, “belonging to the nobility”, appears in a Cambrai charter of 1216, and the noun les nobles in 1369–1372.[4][2] It spread to things owned by nobles, such as héritage noble (1495).[4][8] In this sense the word took the place of gentil, haut and franc.[9] Today le noble art, after English, is boxing, and advertising makes much of matériaux nobles.[2][9] English borrowed the adjective in the 13th century, and German took it as nobel in the 17th.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – First record, in the Vie de saint Alexis.[4]
  • 1080 – The older form nobilie.[2]
  • c. 1179 – Noble the lion in the Roman de Renart.[4]
  • 1216 – “Of the nobility”, in a Cambrai charter.[4]
  • 1314 – Membre noble, in Henri de Mondeville.[4]
  • 1360 – The English gold coin called a noble.[2]
  • 1369–1372 – Les nobles as a noun.[4]
  • 1674 – Of style, in Boileau.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Belonging to the nobility by birth or ennoblement: une famille noble.[9][4]
  2. Of or proper to the nobility: terre noble.[8][3]
  3. Of great moral worth, generous, high-minded: une âme noble, de nobles sentiments.[9][1]
  4. Commanding respect by its dignity or bearing, stately: un air noble.[10][8]
  5. Of a style or genre: elevated, lofty.[2][8]
  6. Of materials: natural and fine, not synthetic: matériaux nobles.[1][2]
  7. (chemistry) Gaz noble, a noble gas, métaux nobles, precious metals.[1][9]
  8. Le noble art: boxing.[9][10]

Noun

  1. A nobleman or noblewoman: les nobles et les roturiers.[9][1]
  2. Le noble: what is noble, grand or majestic.[2]

Word family

  • noblement
  • noblesse
  • nobliau
  • noblaillon
  • anoblir
  • ennoblir

Usage notes

Noble was also the name of an English gold coin first struck by Edward III about 1340–1343;[2] French borrowed it in 1360, first in the south-west under English rule.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 157b
  8. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Noble.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/noble. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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