nul French · revision 17207

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=842, Serments de Strasbourg|origins=la ūnus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /nyl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''nul''' ''m'' (feminine nulle)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French oblique ''nului'', which lasted into the 16th century.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|nūllus|t=not any, none; worthless]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|7, 232a) The Latin word is formed from the negation [[m|la|ne]] and [[m|la|ūllus|t=any, anyone]], itself derived from [[m|la|ūnus|t=one]] (see [[un]]).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873) From the earliest Latin texts “nūllus” took the place of [[m|la|nēmō|t=nobody]] in some cases and tended to drive it out of speech; only Romanian kept “nēmō”.^(DHLF 1992) The sense “worthless” seems to have been taken again from Latin about the 16th century.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Compare [[pro|nul]], which was only a negative adjective, and [[it|nullo]], with both senses.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is found in 842 in the Strasbourg Oaths as an indefinite adjective, “no, not any”: ''nul plaid nunquam prindrai'' “I shall never make any agreement”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a pronoun “no one” from the second half of the 10th century (''Vie de saint Léger''), with ''nul autre'' about 1170 and ''nulle part'' about 1174.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) As a qualifying adjective it first had the legal sense “void, without legal force” (1281); the general sense “of no value” is in Amyot (1559), of a person without intellectual qualities in Rousseau (1769), and ''être nul en'' “hopeless at” in Senancour (1804).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ A race with no winner was ''nulle'' in 1828, whence ''match nul'', and ''nombre nul'' “zero” is recorded in 1903.^(TLFi)^(BHVF) The feminine noun ''nulle'' meant zero (1640) and a meaningless character in coded letters (1690).^(TLFi) At school ''nul'' became a harsh mark, and, from about 1985 young speakers used ''c'est nul'' and ''un nul'' for anything or anyone worthless, ''nullard'' is dated 1953.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 842 – Strasbourg Oaths, “not any”.^(TLFi)

+ * Late 10th century – Pronoun “no one”, ''Vie de saint Léger''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1174 – ''Nulle part''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1180 – ''Nullement''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1281 – “Legally void”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1559 – “Worthless”, Amyot.^(TLFi)

+ * 1769 – Of a person, Rousseau.^(TLFi)

+ * 1828 – A race ending in a dead heat.^(BHVF)

+ * 1953 – ''Nullard''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1985 – ''C'est nul'' in young people's speech.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Determiner===

+ # ''(literary)'' No, not any: ''nul homme n'en sera exempté'', ''sans nul doute'', ''nul doute que''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ===Pronoun===

+ # ''(literary)'' No one, [[m|en|nobody]]: ''nul n'est censé ignorer la loi''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(law)'' [[m|en|null]], void, without legal force: ''un testament nul''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # Of no value, worthless, ''(familiar)'' rubbish, lousy: ''un film nul'', ''c'est nul''.^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of a person, worthless, hopeless: ''être nul en maths''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Equal to zero, nil; in sport, drawn: ''match nul''.^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(familiar)'' A useless person, a [[m|en|loser]]: ''c'est un nul''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nullement]]

+ * [[nullard]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[nullité]]

+ * [[annuler]]

+ * [[un]]

+ * [[la|nūllus]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Nulle part'' “nowhere” is the one use of the indefinite adjective common in everyday French; elsewhere ''aucun'' is usual.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}