English
noun
Noun comes from Anglo-Norman noun, from Latin nōmen ‘name’, and ultimately from Hittite ḫannaⁱ- ‘to sue, judge’.
- Hittitemodernḫannaⁱ-transliteratedcuneiform ḫannaⁱ-, a transliteration‘to sue, judge’
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁nómn̥‘name’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nōmn̥‘name’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnōmen‘name’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400noun
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500noun
- Englishearliest quotation 1753noun
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Hittitemodernḫannaⁱ-transliteratedcuneiform ḫannaⁱ-, a transliteration‘to sue, judge’
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁nómn̥‘name’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nōmn̥‘name’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnōmen‘name’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400noun
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500noun
- Englishearliest quotation 1753noun
Earliest quotation: 1753, Thomas Martin, For the Use of Schools.: “Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of…”
The story
The grammatical sense in Latin was a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ ‘name’
name, anonymity, pseudonym, 31 more
through Latin nōmen ‘name’
nomination, nominal, nominate, allocate, renown, misnomer, nominative, ignominy, ignominious, nomen, 19 more
Today it means
noun A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Hittite ḫannaⁱ- / noun