noyau

English

Borrowed from French noyau.

noyau (countable and uncountable, plural noyaus or noyaux)

A French liqueur made at Poissy in north central France from brandy and flavoured with almonds and the pits of apricots.
- 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178:
  His coffee was excellent, and then came a case of liqueurs, noyau both white and red, etc.
(ethology, countable) A small nucleus or core group of people or animals.
- 1966 August 26, Richard Ardrey, “Strongest Bond of All - The Space We Own”, in LIFE, page 58:
  Borders are violated by hungering males and famished females, and the ordered animosities of the noyau give way to a saturnalia of sexual adventure.
- 1999, Ronald M. Nowak, Walker's Primates of the World, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 27:
  The orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) also exhibits the noyau system and appears to be the only diurnal primate with a largely solitary lifestyle.
- 2000, Sergio M. Pellis, Andrew N. Iwaniuk, “Adult-Adult Play in Primates: Comparative Analyses of Its Origin, Distribution and Evolution”, in Ethology, 106, page 1089:
  This "noyau" pattern is found among various nocturnal strepsirrhines.