Etymologically
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noir

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /nwaʁ/[1]

Forms

noir (feminine noire, masculine plural noirs, feminine plural noires)[1] Old French neir (1080), noir (about 1160).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French neir, inherited from Latin niger (“black, dark; ill-omened”) (accusative “nigrum”).[2][3][4][5][1] Latin “niger”, the counterpart of Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas), has no known etymology, and there is no common Indo-European word for “black”.[3][6]

Cognate with Romanian negru, Italian nero, Occitan negre, Catalan negre, Spanish negro and Portuguese negro; nègre, from Spanish or Portuguese, is its doublet.[6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1100 the Chanson de Roland uses neir both for the colour and for people with dark skin: la neire gent.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

About 1120 it meant “dark, without light”, whence il fait noir (before 1350), chambre noire (1758) and cabinet noir (1835).[2][3] It also marked what is darker of its kind: pain noir (1343), savon noir (1530), bile noire and humeur noire (1604).[2] Mourning clothes are noires from about 1393.[2]

Moral senses date from the 12th century: “wicked” (about 1120), “sad” (1160–74), then bête noire (1750), roman noir (1816), messe noire (1857–67), humour noir (1939) and, of the hidden or illegal, caisse noire (1882) and marché noir (1941).[2][3] Broyer du noir is found in 1756, un petit noir “a black coffee” in 1867, and the slang noir “drunk” in 1898.[8][2] As a noun, un Noir is recorded from 1556.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Neir and la neire gent in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1120 – “Dark, without light”, in the Voyage de saint Brendan.[2]
  • c. 1160 – The form noir in Eneas.[2]
  • 1546 – Les yeux au beurre noir in Rabelais.[2]
  • 1556 – Un Noir, a Black person.[3]
  • 1750 – Bête noire.[2]
  • 1756 – Broyer du noir.[8]
  • 1867 – Un petit noir, a coffee.[2]
  • 1941 – Marché noir.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. black: of the darkest colour: des cheveux noirs.[6][9]
  2. Dark, without light: il fait noir, nuit noire.[2][1]
  3. Dark of its kind: raisin noir, pain noir; dirty: noir de crasse.[9][2]
  4. Of Black people: la musique noire.[9][1]
  5. Gloomy, sad: idées noires; wicked: une âme noire.[2][1]
  6. Illegal, hidden: marché noir, travail au noir.[2][1]
  7. (familiar) drunk.[1][2]

Noun

  1. Black, the colour; black clothing worn for mourning.[2]
  2. Darkness: avoir peur du noir.[1]
  3. Un Noir, une Noire: a Black person.[9][1]
  4. Un petit noir: a cup of black coffee.[8][2]

Word family

  • noirâtre
  • noiraud
  • noirceur

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 130a
  6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)