Etymologically
Log in

noyer

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the French word noyer

noyer1 to drown

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100 Chanson de Roland
Inherited from
Latin neco via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin nex
Etymology tree of noyer1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin nex
Latin necō
French noyer
From the same root · noyer1
Latin interneciō ← nex
Latin sēminex ← nex
Latin ēnecō ← necō
Latin perniciēs ← necō

Pronunciation

Forms

noyer[1] Old French neier (about 1100), then noiier (1176–1184).[2][3]

Etymology

The verb for “to drown” is inherited from Old French neier, inherited from Latin necō (“to kill”), which took the sense “to drown” in popular Latin; that sense is recorded in Medieval Latin in 590, in Gregory of Tours.[2][4][5][3] The Latin verb meant killing with or without bloodshed, especially without a weapon, and was derived from nex (“violent death”).[2][3] The loss of that noun helped the verb lose its first sense, which passed to other verbs such as occire and tuer.[2][5] The stem of the unstressed forms was then extended to the whole verb, which kept it apart from nier.[2][5] Rey relates the Latin noun to noceō (“to harm”) (see nuire) and to Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós, “corpse”).[3]

The sense “drown” is shared by Italian annegare, Catalan negar, Spanish anegar and Romanian îneca,[1][6] and by Old Occitan negar.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, transitively, for causing someone to die in water: Ne seit ocis o en Sebre neiet (“that he be not killed or drowned in the Sebre”).[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive se noyer is used of drowning oneself about 1165 and of drowning by accident in 1174–1176, and the intransitive sense “to sink under the water” is found in 1174–1178.[2][3] In the 13th century the verb took the wider sense of covering with enough liquid to quench or smother, as in drowning in blood (about 1220) or in wine (1240–1280); drowning one's cares in wine follows in the 15th century, and Racine writes of drowning a town in blood in 1673.[2][3] From 1500 it is used of flooding land.[2]

Several senses appear in the 17th century: embedding a piece of wood or iron in masonry (1605), drenching (1607, noyer de pleurs le visage) and, attested before 1628, the figurative reflexive “to be swamped, to lose one's footing”, as in se noyer dans les détails (1831, Balzac) and se noyer dans un verre d'eau “to be defeated by the smallest difficulty”.[2][3] In painting it means blending colours or contours (1676, 1680), and more generally making something vanish into a confused whole.[2][3] The classical sense “to ruin someone's credit” (1680, Mme de Sévigné) has gone out of use.[2][3] From the 18th century it also means making one's thought obscure through wordiness (1733, Voltaire).[2][3]

Noyer le poisson was first an angling term (1888) for tiring out a hooked fish by lifting its head out of the water now and then; from 1932 it means to confuse an issue on purpose.[3][7] The noun noyade arose during the Terror (1794) for the mass drownings ordered at Nantes by Carrier, and only about fifty years later (1846) for accidental drowning.[3][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Neier “to drown (someone)” appears in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1165 – First reflexive use, “to drown oneself”.[2]
  • 1176–1184 – The form noiier is found in Gautier d'Arras.[2]
  • c. 1220 – Used for drowning in blood.[2]
  • 1500 – Used of flooding land.[2][7]
  • 1607 – Malherbe uses it for drenching a face with tears.[2]
  • before 1628 – Malherbe uses the figurative se noyer.[2][3]
  • 1676 – First used in painting.[2]
  • 1694 – The Académie records noyer son vin d'eau.[2]
  • 1794 – The noun noyade appears.[3][5]
  • 1831 – Balzac writes se noyer dans les détails.[2][3]
  • 1932 – Noyer le poisson is used figuratively.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drown: to kill by holding under water or another liquid.[7][2]
  2. To flood, to submerge (land) under water.[7][2]
  3. To drench;[1][2] (cooking) to dilute, to water down.[1][2]
  4. To blur, to make indistinct; in painting, to blend colours or outlines.[2][3]
  5. To swamp someone or an issue under words or detail.[2][7]
  6. Noyer le poisson: to muddy the waters, to cloud an issue on purpose.[7][3]
  7. Noyer son chagrin: to drown one's sorrows.[1]
  8. Se noyer: to drown; figuratively, to be overwhelmed, to get lost: se noyer dans les détails, se noyer dans un verre d'eau.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • noyade
  • noyé
  • ennoyer

noyer2 walnut tree

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1170 Floire et Blancheflor
Inherited from
Latin *nucarius via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin nux

Pronunciation

Forms

noyer m (plural noyers)[1] Old French noier; the spelling noyer is recorded from 1487.[8][9][7]

Etymology

The word for the walnut tree is inherited from Old French noier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *nucārius (“nut tree”), a derivative of Latin nux (“nut”).[5][8][7][10][6] Rey stresses that it was not formed in French from the word for the nut, though Wiktionary compares it with noix and the suffix -ier.[3][1]

Cognate with Occitan noguièr, Catalan noguer, Portuguese nogueira and Spanish noguera,[1][6] and Old Occitan noguier;[5] Italian uses noce, made masculine, and Spanish more often another derivative, nogal.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The GLLF dates the first record to about 1170, in Floire et Blancheflor, for the tree;[8] Littré quotes the passage: Peskiers, ne periers, ne noiers, Autre cier arbre qui fruit port (“peach trees, nor pear trees, nor walnut trees, other precious tree that bears fruit”).[11] The DHLF finds neier as early as 1080.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the tree and, by metonymy, its wood, used in cabinetmaking (1382–1384).[3] In 1690 Furetière applies it also to trees of other genera.[8][3] In the 16th century Olivier de Serres speaks of nojeraies, places planted with walnut trees, and proverbs compare the poor man to the walnut tree, which everyone strips.[11] The modern word for a walnut grove, noiseraie, is formed on it in 1812.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1170 – Noier appears in Floire et Blancheflor.[8]
  • 1382–1384 – Used for the wood of the tree.[3]
  • 1487 – The spelling noyer is recorded.[8][9]
  • 1690 – Furetière uses it for other trees.[8]
  • 1812 – The derivative noiseraie appears.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The walnut tree, a large tree whose fruit is the noix.[7][8][1]
  2. Walnut wood, used for furniture: une armoire en noyer.[7][8]
  3. A name of various trees of other genera.[8][11]

Word family

  • noiseraie

Usage notes

Littré gave the pronunciation as no-ié, noting that some said noi-ié and that the old neyer could still be heard for the verb.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 w x y z 27 28 29 30 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 o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 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, 75a
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 224b
  11. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Noyer.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/noyer. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·