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nous

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Nous

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, mind).

Pronunciation

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  • (US) enPR: noo͞s, IPA(key): /nuːs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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nous (uncountable)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
  1. (philosophy) The mind or intellect, reason, both rational and emotional
  2. In Neoplatonism, the divine reason, regarded as first divine emanation.
  3. Common sense; practical intelligence.
    • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Uniform edition, Edward Arnold, Part I, I, page 19:
      There is nothing original in absent-mindedness. True originality lies elsewhere. Really, the lower classes have no nous.
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Translations

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Adjective

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nous

  1. masculine plural of nou (new)

Etymology 2

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Noun

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nous

  1. plural of nou (nine)

Etymology 3

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Noun

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nous

  1. plural of nou (nut)

Etymology 4

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Verb

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nous

  1. second-person singular present indicative of noure

French

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Middle French nous, from Old French nous, nos, from Latin nōs, from Proto-Italic *nōs.

In several dialects of French, je may be used instead of nous (j'allons instead of nous allons, je voyons instead of nous voyons etc.), this use was perceived as peasant-like and thus often mocked since the 15th century (for example by Molière). However this use survived and spread in various regions of the so-called domaine d'oïl (linguistic area starting above Auvergne where the oïl varieties of Romance developed from the 4th or 5th century). The regions of France where this use of je (from Latin ego "I") instead of nous, nos (from Latin nos, "we") was recorded are Normandy, Romance-speaking Brittany, Poitou and Anjou, Champagne, Ardennes, Bourgogne and Franche-Comté, Dauphiné, Berry, Touraine, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine. See cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin je and nous, Bourbonnais-Berrichon je and nous, Bourguignon i and nous, Champenois ju and nous, Franc-Comtois i and nôs, Gallo je and nouz, Lorrain nos, Norman je and nos, Orléanais je and nous, Picard nos, Poitevin-Saintongeais i/jhe and nous, Franco-Provençal nos, Occitan nosautres (Provençal nousautes), Catalan nosaltres, Corsican noi.

Pronoun

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nous (first-person plural, singular je, object nous, emphatic nous, possessive determiner notre)

  1. the plural personal pronoun in the first person:
    1. (subject pronoun) we
      Synonym: on (informal)
    2. (object pronoun) us, to us
  2. (royal, historical) we (as the royal we)
Derived terms
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See also
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French personal pronouns
number person gender nominative
(subject)
accusative
(direct complement)
dative
(indirect complement)
locative
(at)
genitive
(of)
disjunctive
(tonic)1
emphatic
reflexive
relative proximal distal
singular first je, j’ me, m’ moi moi-même
second tu te, t’ toi toi-même
third masculine il2 le, l’ lui y en lui lui-même celui celui-ci celui-là
feminine elle la, l’ elle elle-même celle celle-ci celle-là
indeterminate on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, ça ce ceci cela, ça
reflexive se, s’5 soi soi-même
plural first nous nous nous nous-mêmes
second6 vous vous vous vous-mêmes,
vous-même6
third masculine ils7 les leur y en eux7 eux-mêmes7 ceux ceux-ci ceux-là
feminine elles elles elles-mêmes celles celles-ci celles-là

1 The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d‘, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
2 Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
3 On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
4 The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
5 The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
6 Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
7 Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

Etymology 2

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From Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, mind).

Noun

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nous m (plural nous)

  1. the nous, (divine) reason in philosophy

Further reading

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Middle French

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Etymology

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From Old French nous.

Pronoun

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nous

  1. we (subject pronoun)
  2. ourselves (reflexive pronoun)

Descendants

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  • French: nous

Old French

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Etymology

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From Latin nōs.

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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nous

  1. alternative form of nos

Picard

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Etymology

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From Old French nous.

Pronoun

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nous

  1. we