nouer

Forms

nouer^[1] Old French noer; the spelling nouer is found from the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French noer, inherited from Latin nōdō (“to tie with a knot”).^[4][5][1][6] The Latin verb is formed from nōdus (“knot”), the source of nœud,^[7][2] and in spoken Latin it took the place of the older verb nectō (“to bind”).^[7]

Cognate with Picard neuer, Old Occitan nozar, Catalan nuar and, with a prefix, Italian annodare and Spanish anudar.^[8][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chrétien de Troyes uses noer in 1165 for “to tie with a knot, make a knot”; in the 13th century it also meant to wrap something up by knotting it.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

In weaving the verb was used from 1250 for knotting the warp threads and mending a broken thread, a sense that disappears from the written record after the 14th century and is found again from 1765.^[4][7] The 16th century brought the figurative phrases nouer l'aiguillette “to make (a man) impotent by a spell” (1579) and nouer les deux bouts (1585), later displaced by joindre les deux bouts.^[7][4]

Used without an object, from 1377 it meant the mating of a dog and a bitch, a sense now lost, and then in farming the passage of a plant from flower to fruit (about 1520, se nouer 1539).^[7][4] In the 16th and 17th centuries it took on figurative senses parallel to those of lier: to form a moral bond (Montaigne, 1580), as in nouer conversation (1666) and nouer amitié (1671), and to form or organize something, especially the plot of a play or a literary work (1748).^[7][4] The past participle noué came to mean “rickety” (1718) and, figuratively, tight or tense, as of a throat choked by emotion (1909).^[7]

Timeline

• 1165 – Noer “to tie with a knot” in Chrétien de Troyes.^[4]
• 1250 – Used of knotting the warp threads in weaving.^[4][7]
• 1377 – First intransitive use, of dogs mating.^[4]
• c. 1520 – Used of plants setting fruit.^[4]
• 1579 – Nouer l'aiguillette in Ambroise Paré.^[4]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for forming a moral bond.^[4][7]
• 1585 – Nouer les deux bouts in Noël du Fail.^[4]
• 1666 – Nouer conversation is recorded.^[7]
• 1718 – The Académie records noué “rickety”.^[4]
• 1909 – Nouer la gorge in Martin du Gard.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tie (a string, a ribbon) in a knot, or to tie two ends together with a knot: nouer le lacet d'une chaussure, nouer un foulard autour du cou.^[10][11][1]
2. To tie up or bind (a bundle, a bouquet) with a knotted cord.^[10]
3. (figurative) To form or establish (a relationship, a friendship, a conversation): nouer amitié, nouer conversation.^[4][7]
4. (literature) To build up the plot of a play or story.^[8][7]
5. (figurative) Of emotion, to make (the throat) tight: l'angoisse lui nouait la gorge.^[4][3]
6. (intransitive, agriculture) Of a plant or flower, to set fruit.^[7][4]
7. (textiles) To retie the broken threads of the warp or weft.^[10]

Word family

• nouure
• dénouer
• renouer
• nouement
• noueur
• nouage
• nouaison

Related words

• nœud
• Latin nōdus

Usage notes

Nouer l'aiguillette was the old phrase for making a man impotent by a magic spell.^[4][7] Nouer les deux bouts “to make ends meet” gave way to joindre les deux bouts.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. ^ 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. 7, 164a
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)