nun

See also Nun, Nun., nún, ñun, and ن

English

Etymology 1

From Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc.

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŭn, IPA: /nʌn/, X-SAMPA: /nVn/
• Rhymes: -ʌn

• Homophone: none

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

1. A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, in some cases living together in a cloister.
2. By extension, member of a similar female community in other confessions.

Synonyms

• sister, moniale, sistren

Antonyms

• (member of a religious community of men)
• brother
• friar
• monk
• friar and frater or father

Derived terms

• nunhood
• nunlike, nun-like
• nunnery

Related terms

• nonnus

Translations

member of a Christian religious community of women

• Arabic: راهبة (ar) (rāhiba) f
• Asturian: monxa (ast) f
• Catalan: monja (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 修女 (cmn) (xiūnǚ), 尼姑 (cmn) (nígū), 姑子 (cmn) (gūzi), 尼 (cmn) (ní)

• Czech: jeptiška (cs) f, řeholnice (cs) f
• Danish: nonne (da) c
• Dutch: non (nl) f, (klooster-, slot-)zuster (nl) f
• Esperanto: monaĥino (eo)
• Faroese: nunna (fo) f
• Finnish: nunna (fi)
• French: nonne (fr) f, religieuse (fr) f, bonne sœur (fr) f, moniale (fr) f, nonnain (fr) f
• Galician: madre (gl) f, monxa (gl) f
• German: Nonne (de) f, Ordensschwester (de) f, Klosterschwester (de) f, Schwester (de)
• Hungarian: apáca (hu), nővér (hu)
• Italian: suora (it) f, monaca (it) f
• Japanese: 修道女 (ja) (しゅうどうじょ, shūdōjo), 修道女 (ja) (しゅうどうじょ, shūdōjo), 尼僧 (ja) (にそう, nisō), 童貞 (ja) (dōtei), (now derogatory) 尼 (ja) (あま, ama)
• Jèrriais: nonne f
• Korean: 수녀 (ko) (sunyeo) (修女 (ko)), 비구니 (ko) (biguni) (比丘尼 (ko))
• Luxembourgish: Nonn (lb) f

• Macedonian: калуѓерка (mk) (kalúǵerka) f
• Malay: rahib perempuan (ms)
• Norwegian: nonne (no) m
• Old English: nunne (ang) f, nunfæmne (ang) f
• Polish: zakonnica (pl), mniszka (pl), siostra zakonna (pl) f
• Portuguese: freira (pt), religiosa (pt) f, madre (pt), monja (pt) f
• Romanian: călugăriță (ro) f
• Russian: монахиня (ru) (monáxinja) f, монашка (ru) (monáška) f
• Scottish Gaelic: cailleach dhubh (gd) f, bean-chràbhaidh (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калуђерица (sh) f, монахиња (sh) f, редовница (sh) f, духовница (sh) f

  Roman: kaluđerica (sh) f, monahinja (sh) f, redovnica (sh) f, duhovnica (sh) f

• Skolt Sami: manaših
• Slovak: mníška (sk) f, rehoľníčka (sk) f
• Slovene: nuna (sl) f
• Spanish: monja (es) f
• Swedish: nunna (sv) c
• Tagalog: madre (tl)
• Tetun Dili: madre
• Vietnamese: xơ (vi), bà xơ (vi), nữ tu sĩ (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) kleudan (vo), (♂) hikleudan (vo), (♀) jikleudan (vo)

member of a non-Christian religious community of women

• Czech: mniška (cs) f
• Esperanto: monaĥino (eo)

• Hindi: मठवासिनी (hi) f, तपस्विनी (hi) f
• Vietnamese: nữ tu sĩ (vi)

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Semitic *nūn- (“fish”).

Alternative forms

• nūn

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŏŏn, IPA: /nʊn/, X-SAMPA: /nUn/ or enPR: no͞on, IPA: /nuːn/, X-SAMPA: /nu:n/

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

1. The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).

Translations

Semitic letter

• Dutch: noen (nl)

• Hebrew: נון (he) (nun) m

External links

• Nun (letter) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Nun (letter)

References

• “nun” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

---

Asturian

Alternative forms

• ñun (adverb)

Adverb

nun

1. not, no (used to make negatives)

Contraction

nun

1. in a/an (contraction of en + un)

---

Chiricahua

Alternative forms

• non (in older Americanist literature)

Etymology

Cognates: Navajo nooʼ, Western Apache non, noi, Plains Apache nǫǫ.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /nòn/

Noun

nun

1. grave, burial place
2. cache

---

Esperanto

Etymology

German nun.

Adverb

nun

1. now

Derived terms

• nuna
• nune
• nuntempe

---

Fala

Adverb

nun

1. Alternative form of non.

---

Galician

Etymology

From contraction of preposition en (“in”) + masculine article un (“a, one”)

Contraction

nun m (feminine nunha, masculine plural nuns, feminine plural nunhas)

1. in a, in one

---

German

Adverb

nun

1. now; then

Interjection

nun

1. (when placed at the beginning of a sentence) well; so

   Nun, wie geht’s? — “Well, how’s it going?”

---

Ido

Adverb

nun

1. now

---

Lojban

Rafsi

nun

1. rafsi of nu.

---

Rohingya

Etymology

From Bengali This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology. Requires the Bengali etymon

Noun

nun

1. salt

---

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin nonnus.

Noun

nun m (plural nuni; feminine equivalent nună)

1. the godfather at a wedding

Declension

declension of nun

	singular		plural
gender m	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	un nun	nunul	niște nuni	nunii
genitive/dative	unui nun	nunului	unor nuni	nunilor

Derived terms

• naș

See also

• nuntă

---

Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic نون (wāw).

Noun

nun

1. Letter of the Arabic alphabet: ن

• • Previous: م
  • Next: و

---

Volapük

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

1. message

Declension

declension of nun

	singular	plural
nominative	nun	nuns
genitive	nuna	nunas
dative	nune	nunes
accusative	nuni	nunis
predicative	nunu	nunus
vocative	o nun!	o nuns!