noueux

Forms

noueux (feminine noueuse, masculine plural noueux, feminine plural noueuses)^[1] Old French noous;^[2][3] Palsgrave has neueux and noueux (1530), Estienne noueulx (1539).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French noous, inherited from Latin nōdōsus (“full of knots”),^[2][4][3][5] from nōdus (“knot”), the source of nœud.^[2][3] In Latin it was also said of gout that knots the joints.^[2][3]

Cognate with Italian nodoso, Portuguese nodoso, Spanish nudoso and Old Occitan nodos.^[5][6] Old French also had noailleux, which Littré derives from noial (“fruit stone”), not from the word for knot.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as noous in the early 13th-century Vie de sainte Juliane, of knotty rods (verges noouses).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Said first of wood with many knots, it was applied by comparison to limbs and joints: Brunetto Latini wrote of the knotty knees of falcons about 1265, and Paré of knotty fingers in the 16th century.^[2][3] Paré also used it of swellings and of gout (1575), the start of a medical use seen in rhumatisme noueux (1855) and érythème noueux (1870).^[2][3] Zola applied it in 1875 to wiry old men with prominent muscles.^[2][3]

Timeline

• early 13th century – Noous appears in the Vie de sainte Juliane.^[2]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini uses it of falcons' knees.^[2]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records noueux.^[2][7]
• 1575 – Paré speaks of tumeurs noueuses and goute noueuse.^[2][6]
• 1690 – Furetière records it as a heraldic term.^[2]
• 1855 – Rhumatisme noueux is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1870 – Érythème noueux is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1875 – Zola uses it of gnarled old men.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of wood or a tree, knotty, gnarled: un vieil olivier noueux.^[8][9][2]
2. Having swollen joints or nodosities: des doigts noueux.^[8][9][6]
3. Of a person, lean and sinewy, with prominent muscles.^[2][3]
4. (medicine) Producing nodules or knotted joints, as in érythème noueux.^[2][8]

Related words

• nœud
• nodosité
• nouer
• Latin nōdōsus

References

1. ^ a b 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 173a
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)