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 originally 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, obsolete) we (as the royal we)
Derived terms edit
See also edit
Number | Person | Gender | Nominative (subject) |
Accusative (direct complement) |
Dative (indirect complement) |
Disjunctive (tonic) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | — | je, j’ | me, m’ | moi | |
Second | — | tu | te, t’ | toi | ||
Third | Masculine | il | le, l’ | lui | lui | |
Feminine | elle | la, l’ | elle | |||
Gender neutral5 | iel | lea | ellui | |||
Indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | ||
Reflexive | — | se, s’4 | soi4 | |||
Plural | First | — | nous | nous | nous | |
Second | — | vous2 | vous2,3 | vous2 | ||
Third | Masculine | ils3 | les | leur | eux | |
Feminine | elles | elles | ||||
Gender neutral5 | iels | elleux |
- 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.
- 5 Colloquial, and not in popular use.
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