nun

See also: Nun, nún, nùn, ñun, Nun., and ن‎

English

Etymology 1

From Old English nunne (“nun, priestess”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: nŭn, IPA(key): /nʌn/
  • Rhymes: -ʌn
  • Homophone: none

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

  1. A member of a Christian religious community of women who live by certain vows and usually wear a habit, (Roman Catholicism, specifically) those living together in a cloister.
  2. (by extension) A member of a similar female community in other confessions.
  3. (archaic, British slang) A prostitute.[1]
    • 1770, Foote, Samuel, The Lame Lover‎, page 12:
      Then lend me your ear—Why last night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were carelessly sliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who should trip by but an abbess, well known about town, with a smart little nun in her suite.
    • 1881, Egan, Pierce, chapter 8, in Life in London‎, page 205:
      "I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"
  4. A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.
Usage notes

In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Semitic *nūn- (“fish”).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: nŏŏn, IPA(key): /nʊn/ or enPR: no͞on, IPA(key): /nuːn/

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

  1. The fourteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
Translations

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Farmer, John Stephen (1902) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 5, page 76
  • “nun” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Asturian

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From Latin nōn.

Adverb

nun

  1. not, no (used to make negatives)

Contraction

nun

  1. in a/an (contraction of en + un)

Chiricahua

Alternative forms

  • non (in older Americanist literature)

Etymology

Cognates: Navajo nooʼ, Western Apache non, noi, Plains Apache nǫǫ.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nòn/

Noun

nun

  1. grave, burial place
  2. cache

Esperanto

Etymology

German nun.

Adverb

nun

  1. now

Derived terms

Fala

Adverb

nun

  1. Alternative form of non

Galician

Etymology

From contraction of preposition en (“in”) + masculine article un (“a, one”)

Contraction

nun m (feminine nunha, masculine plural nuns, feminine plural nunhas)

  1. in a, in one

German

Alternative forms

  • nu (colloquial; otherwise archaic)

Etymology

From Middle High German nu, nū, nuo with a secondary final -n, already occasionally in Middle High German nuon.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nuːn/
  • Audio(file)

Adverb

nun

  1. now, at this moment
  2. now, then; expressing a logical or temporal consequence
    Wir haben abgewaschen, nun müssen wir noch abtrocknen.
    We've washed up, now we must dry [the dishes].
    Was bedeuten nun die geschilderten Entwicklungen für unser Land?
    Now what do the aforementioned developments mean for our country?
  3. unstressed and expletive, used for minor emphasis
    Was soll das nun heißen?
    What's that supposed to mean now?

Usage notes

  • Although the adverb is similar and akin to English “now”, German nun is not commonly used in a strictly temporal sense, meaning “at this moment”. For that, see jetzt.

Interjection

nun

  1. now, well, so
    Nun, das ist eine schwierige Frage.
    Well, that's a tough question.

Hausa

Noun

nun f

  1. Arabic letter nun (ن‎)

Ido

Adverb

nun

  1. now

Italian

Etymology

From Hebrew נו״ן‎ (nun).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nun/, [n̺un̺]
  • Stress: nùn
  • Hyphenation: nun

Noun

nun f (invariable)

  1. nun, specifically:
    1. The name of the Phoenician-script letter 𐤍
    2. The name of the Hebrew-script letter נ/ן
    3. The name of the Arabic-script letter ن

Mirandese

Adverb

nun

  1. not

Novial

Adverb

nun

  1. now

Old French

Etymology 1

See nom.

Noun

nun m (oblique plural nuns, nominative singular nuns, nominative plural nun)

  1. (Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of nom

Etymology 2

Reduced from of negun.

Adjective

nun m (oblique and nominative feminine singular nune)

  1. Alternative form of negun

Pronoun

nun

  1. Alternative form of negun

Rohingya

Etymology

From Bengali [Term?].

Noun

nun

  1. salt

Romanian

Etymology

From Late Latin nonnus.

Noun

nun m (plural nuni, feminine equivalent nună)

  1. the godfather at a wedding

Declension

Derived terms

See also

Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic نُون‎ (nūn).

Noun

nun

  1. Letter of the Arabic alphabet: ن
    • Previous: م‎
    • Next: و‎

Volapük

Noun

nun (plural nuns)

  1. message

Declension

Wolof

Alternative forms

  • ñun (used alongside "nun" in Urban Wolof)

Pronoun

nun

  1. we (first-person plural subject pronoun)

See also

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