nous

See also: Nous

English

Alternative forms

• noos, nouse

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: nous, IPA^(key): /naʊs/
• Rhymes: -aʊs

• (US) enPR: noo͞s, IPA^(key): /nuːs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

nous (uncountable)

1. (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.

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.

Related terms

• autonoesis
• autonoetic
• metanoia
• noema
• noesis
• noetic
• noogenesis
• noology
• noosphere
• nootropic
• paranoia

Translations

reason in philosophy

• Bulgarian: разум (bg) m (razum)
• Dutch: nous (nl) n
• French: nous (fr) m
• German: Nous
• Hungarian: núsz, noosz
• Russian: смётка (ru) f (smjótka), разум (ru) m (razum)
• Swedish: nous (sv), förnuft (sv)

Anagrams

• Onsu, Osun, Suon, UNOS, Unos, onus, ouns

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈnɔws]
• Hyphenation: nous
• Rhymes: -ɔws

Etymology 1

Adjective

nous

1. masculine plural of nou (“new”)

Etymology 2

Noun

nous

1. plural of nou (“nine”)

Etymology 3

Noun

nous

1. plural of nou (“nut”)

Etymology 4

Verb

nous

1. second-person singular present indicative of noure

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nu/, (before a vowel) /nu.z‿/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: noue, nouent, noues

Etymology 1

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

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

• ce que c'est que de nous !
• entre nous
• nous autres
• nous de majesté
• nous-mêmes

See also

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

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

Noun

nous m (plural nous)

1. the nous, (divine) reason in philosophy

Further reading

• “nous”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French nous.

Pronoun

nous

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

Descendants

• French: nous

Old French

Etymology

From Latin nōs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nus/

Pronoun

nous

1. alternative form of nos

Picard

Etymology

From Old French nous.

Pronoun

nous

1. we