nous
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, “mind”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]nous (uncountable)
- (philosophy) The mind or intellect, reason, both rational and emotional
- 1900, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, On the Disastrous Spread of Aestheticism in all Classes:
- I feel the will to roam, to learn
By test, experience, nous,
That fire is hot and ocean deep,
And wolves carnivorous.
- In Neoplatonism, the divine reason, regarded as first divine emanation.
- 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.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Catalan
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Adjective
[edit]nous
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]nous
Etymology 3
[edit]Noun
[edit]nous
Etymology 4
[edit]Verb
[edit]nous
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]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
[edit]nous (first-person plural, singular je, object nous, emphatic nous, possessive determiner notre)
- the plural personal pronoun in the first person:
- (royal, historical) we (as the royal we)
Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]Number | Person | Gender | Nominative (subject) |
Accusative (direct complement) |
Dative (indirect complement) |
Locative (at) |
Genitive (of) |
Disjunctive (tonic) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | — | je, j’ | me, m’ | — | — | moi | |
Second | — | tu | te, t’ | — | — | toi | ||
Third | Masculine | il | le, l’ | lui | y | en | lui | |
Feminine | elle | la, l’ | elle | |||||
Indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Reflexive | — | se, s’4 | — | — | soi4 | |||
Plural | First | — | nous | nous | — | — | nous | |
Second | — | vous2 | vous2,3 | — | — | vous2 | ||
Third | Masculine | ils3 | les | leur | y | en | eux3 | |
Feminine | elles | elles |
- 1 Also used as the first person plural.
- 2 Also used as the polite singular form.
- 3 Also used when a group has both men and women.
- 4 Also used as third person plural reflexive.
Etymology 2
[edit]From Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, “mind”).
Noun
[edit]nous m (plural nous)
Further reading
[edit]- “nous”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French nous.
Pronoun
[edit]nous
Descendants
[edit]- French: nous
Old French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]nous
- Alternative form of nos
Picard
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French nous.
Pronoun
[edit]nous
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)neh₁-
- English terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aʊs
- Rhymes:English/aʊs/1 syllable
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Philosophy
- English terms with quotations
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Catalan/ɔws
- Rhymes:Catalan/ɔws/1 syllable
- Catalan non-lemma forms
- Catalan adjective forms
- Catalan noun forms
- Catalan verb forms
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms with homophones
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- French terms derived from Proto-Italic
- French lemmas
- French pronouns
- French personal pronouns
- French royal terms
- French terms with historical senses
- French terms derived from Ancient Greek
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Middle French terms inherited from Old French
- Middle French terms derived from Old French
- Middle French lemmas
- Middle French pronouns
- Middle French reflexive pronouns
- Old French terms inherited from Latin
- Old French terms derived from Latin
- Old French terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old French lemmas
- Old French pronouns
- Old French personal pronouns
- Old French subject pronouns
- Picard terms inherited from Old French
- Picard terms derived from Old French
- Picard lemmas
- Picard pronouns