Etymologically
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nord

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 22:02. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /nɔʁ/[1]
  • IPA (France, Southern): [n̪ɔʁ̥][1]
  • IPA (Quebec): [naɔ̯ʁ][1]
  • IPA (Quebec): [nɑɔ̯ʁ][1]

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

  1. The north: au nord de Paris, plein nord, nord magnétique.[10][9]
  2. (capitalised) The northern part of a country or the world: le Nord de la France, le Grand Nord.[10][2]
  3. (capitalised) The industrialised countries.[9][4]
  4. Perdre le nord: to lose one's bearings, lose one's head.[10][2]

Adjective

  1. North, northern: le pôle Nord, la face nord.[10][9]

Word family

  • nordique
  • nordiste
  • nord-est
  • nord-ouest
  • noroît

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 601b
  7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b 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)
  10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert