noise

Forms

noise f (oblique plural noises)^[1]

• noyse, noisse, noize^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[1][4] Most sources take it as inherited from Latin nausea (“seasickness, nausea”).^[3][5][6][7] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ναυσία (nausía, “seasickness”), from ναῦς (naûs, “ship”).^[1] Pope derives it through a form Vulgar Latin *nausya, in which /s/ before the glide became /z/.^[8]

The difficulty is the meaning.^[1][4] Gamillscheg calls the shift of sense obscure,^[5] and Bloch and Wartburg suppose that the word took many senses in popular Latin, probably through jokes, so that its development can no longer be followed.^[6] The Old Occitan word nauza meant "grief, trouble" about 1160–1180, and the TLFi suggests that the senses "quarrel" and "din" may have come from that one; the Occitan word also had them by the end of the 12th century.^[7][4] The DHLF finds it hard to explain that the sense "noise, tumult" is there from the first records.^[4]

Because of this, A. Lanly proposed in 1974 Latin noxia (“offence, fault”) instead, with the /o/ closed by the following glide.^[7][4] Wiktionary finds neither explanation satisfactory for both form and sense.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Vie de saint Alexis, which the DEAF dates to about 1090 and the TLFi to about 1050; there the word already means noise and tumult.^[9][7][10]

Semantic evolution

The Roland uses the word for the din of battle,^[7] and the Roman d'Énéas of about 1160 has El bourc oy la noyse grant “in the town he heard the great uproar”.^[11] From about 1165, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, it also means a quarrel,^[7][4] and faire noise a “to pick a quarrel with” is recorded in the first half of the 13th century.^[7] Tobler–Lommatzsch also records the sense "rumour", which Greimas illustrates from Aucassin et Nicolette.^[12][13]

In Classical French the word grew old and survived only in chercher noise “to pick a quarrel”, first as cercher noises pour noisettes “to quarrel over nuts” in Cotgrave, 1611.^[4][7][6] Furetière, in 1690, notes that it once meant any sound, even the pleasant music of fiddles at a wedding.^[4] The modern word is French noise, while the English word took the general sense "sound".^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1090 – noise in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the TLFi's dating).^[9][10][7]
• c. 1100 – noise in the Chanson de Roland.^[7][14]
• 1121–1125 – the first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[15]
• c. 1160 – noyse in the Roman d'Énéas.^[11]
• c. 1165 – the sense “quarrel” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[7]
• c. 1170 – noise in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[16]
• 1611 – cercher noises pour noisettes in Cotgrave.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. noise, din, uproar.^[17][15][7]
2. quarrel, dispute.^[18][7][15]
3. rumour, report of news.^[12][13]
4. outcry, protest, lamentation.^[15]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from 1121–1125, for loud sound of every kind, from the commotion of people to the sounds of animals and musical instruments and a buzzing in the ears, and for an outcry, a quarrel and a disturbance.^[15] The verb noiser is recorded in England from about 1136–1165.^[19] Middle English took the noun about 1200, first for the sound of a musical instrument.^[20]

Word family

• noisier

Descendants

• Middle French noise (→ French noise)^[1]
• Middle English noyse (borrowed; → English noise, Scots noise)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7:56
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. noise
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 689
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 473
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
8. ^ Pope, Mildred K. (1934), From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman: Phonology and Morphology, Manchester: Manchester University Press (revised reprint 1952), p. § 314
9. ^ a b Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. noise
10. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. AlexisZ
11. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
12. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:731
13. ^ a b Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. noise
14. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
15. ^ a b c d e Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. noise
16. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. noise
17. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:729
18. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:728
19. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. noiser
20. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com