nous

English

Alternative forms

• noos

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

English Wikipedia has an article on:

nous

Wikipedia

• (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 originally lies elsewhere. Really, the lower classes have no nous.

Related terms

• paranoia
• noesis
• noogenesis
• noology
• noosphere
• nootropic

Translations

Anagrams

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

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian)
• 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, obsolete) we (as the royal we)

Derived terms

See also

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 , 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