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renoun

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word renoun

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1150–1175 the earliest Anglo-Norman citation of the AND More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin nōminō

Forms

renoun m (oblique plural renouns; nominative singular renouns)[1]

In the corpora that FROLEX counts, renom is the commonest spelling, with 255 occurrences, ahead of renon with 121.[2] Chrétien de Troyes writes renon and renons.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French re- + noun (“name”).[1] The TLFi instead describes it as a noun made from the verb renomer “to praise, make famous”,[4] and the FEW files it beside that verb under Latin nōminō (“to name”), the source of nomer.[5][6] Etymonline likewise derives the Anglo-Norman form through the verb from the prefix and the simple verb.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The AND dates its first citation of the word to the third quarter of the 12th century.[8] In Chrétien de Troyes it already means a person's reputation: Or fu Erec de tel renon Qu'an ne parloit se de lui non “Now Erec was of such renown that people spoke of nobody but him”, in Erec et Enide, about 1170.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

In Chrétien the word nearly always comes with a qualifier, de grant renon or de boen renon, and it means the name a person has among others.[3] The TLFi's first record, in Cligès, has the same sense of the opinion people hold of someone or something.[4] In Middle French it could be good or bad, bon renom beside mal renon, and a single text of about 1350 uses it for a new proclamation, dusques a mon renon “until further notice”.[10] Godefroy also records it for a surname and for a feast day.[11] The sense of good renown, celebrity, is dated by the TLFi from 1508, and the word lives on as French renom.[4]

Timeline

  • 1150–1175 – the earliest Anglo-Norman citation in the AND.[8]
  • c. 1170 – renon in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.[3][9]
  • c. 1170 – in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.[12][13]
  • 1176 – in Cligès, the TLFi's first record.[4]
  • c. 1248 – renom in a Lorraine copy of the Image du Monde.[14]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English renoun.[7]
  • 1508 – the sense “good renown, celebrity”.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. reputation, the name one has among others, good or bad.[3][10]
  2. renown, fame.[1]
  3. (Middle French) a new proclamation, in dusques a mon renon “until further notice”.[10]
  4. (rare) a surname; a feast day.[11]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word in the third quarter of the 12th century,[8] and Wiktionary takes the insular spelling renoun as its head.[1] Middle English borrowed it as renoun, which the MED derives from Old French renom and renon and, from Anglo-French renoun,[15] and Etymonline dates it to about 1300; it is the source of the English word renown.[7] The AND also lists renon, renoun and renun among the spellings of reinon “kidney”, which has another source.[16]

Descendants

  • Middle French renom (→ French renom)[10][4]
  • Middle English renoun (borrowed; → English renown)[15][7]
  • renomer
  • nomer

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT and the DMF head the word renom,[12][11][3][10] and Wiktionary renoun.[1] Godefroy also has renon for a kind of cloak, from a Latin glossary, which the FEW files under the word for a cloak.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 c d e f Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. renom
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7:181
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7:179
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. renom
  9. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ErecF
  10. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. renom
  11. ^ a b c Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 7:37
  12. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 8:824
  13. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. BenTroieC
  14. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. ImMondeOct3M
  15. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. reinon
  17. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 7:38
  18. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 21:519
Cite this entry

“Renoun.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/renoun. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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