- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- c. 1140, Geffrei Gaimar
- Borrowed from
- Old English norþ
- Ultimate origin
- Old English (norþ)
Pronunciation
Forms
nord m (invariable)[1] Norht (about 1140), north (1155), nort (1174–1176); nord from 1549; the Académie (1694) notes that some write nort.[2][3][4]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Old English norþ (“north”) (English north),[2][3][5][6] first used in Normandy and spreading from there.[2][3] The English word belongs to a Germanic family of unknown origin;[3] Wiktionary traces it to an Indo-European “*nér”.[1] Italian nord and Spanish norte come from French.[5][3][1] Wace explains in the “Roman de Rou” that the English “dient en lor language… en north alom, de north venom”.[7]
Earliest recorded meaning
Geffrei Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis (about 1140) has norht as an adverb, “northwards”;[2][3] Wace's Brut (1155) has the noun, the cardinal point opposite the south, and the adjective (porte nort).[2]
Semantic evolution
In Wace's Rou (1160–1174) it also named the north wind and the northern countries, uses now archaic except in noroît and le Grand Nord (1874).[2][3][8] Furetière (1690) has the northern part of a country (le Nord d'Écosse), and in France le Nord is opposed to le Midi.[2][3] Perdre le nord “not to know where one is” is recorded in 1572 and later meant “to lose one's head”.[2][3]
Like the other compass points of English origin, nord long belonged to the language of science and the sea, beside the Latin septentrion.[3] Nord-ouest (1155) and nord-est (1175) are as old as the word, and nordiste (1865) named the Northerners of the American Civil War.[3] In modern politics le Nord is the industrialised world as opposed to the South.[9][4]
Timeline
- c. 1140 – Norht in Gaimar.[2]
- 1155 – The noun and adjective, in Wace, nord-ouest.[2][3]
- 1160–1174 – The north wind; northern lands.[2]
- 1549 – The spelling nord.[3]
- 1572 – Perdre le nord.[2]
- 1690 – The north of a country.[2]
- 1865 – Nordiste.[3]
- 1874 – Le Grand Nord.[8]
Meanings
Noun
- The north: au nord de Paris, plein nord, nord magnétique.[10][9]
- (capitalised) The northern part of a country or the world: le Nord de la France, le Grand Nord.[10][2]
- (capitalised) The industrialised countries.[9][4]
- Perdre le nord: to lose one's bearings, lose one's head.[10][2]
Adjective
Word family
- nordique
- nordiste
- nord-est
- nord-ouest
- noroît
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 601b
- ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
- ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
- ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Nord.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/nord. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
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