Noble (meanings)

The word noble, which is common both as an adjective and as a noun, has several degrees and shades of meaning, some depending on delicate social judgement.(You may want to see AWE's article on a less delicate perception, embodied in the shortening nob.) There are also several specialized meanings in various academic subjects.

• The original root is the Latin nobilis (also both adjective and noun), from noscere (earlier gnoscere, cognate with know) 'to know': it means 'well known', 'famous'. In the military world of Rome, this was primarily a matter of success in the field (of battle): 'heroic', 'renowned [for feats of arms]'.
• It then became a matter more of rank, particularly - after the ending of the Roman Empire - as conferred by the monarch and most commonly earned by birth, or inheritance from one who had earned it by virtue of military exploits. In the UK, the ranks of the nobility (the peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords) are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron; minor nobility include Baronets and Knights (both addressed as 'Sir [+ forename]'), and gentlemen (those entitled to bear arms), and in Scotland Lairds. The female equivalents of these titles are Duchess, Marchioness, Countess, Viscountess and Baroness; the equivalent of knight and baronet is entitled 'Dame [+ name]'. All the major peeresses are addressed as 'My Lady', or 'Lady [+ forename].
• More recently (since the Middle Ages), the adjective noble has come to signify the qualities ideally to be found among the nobility: in early times the military prowess (and success) for which knights were granted lands and concomitant titles, and later 'showing the best qualities', 'having splendour', 'making a fine show'. For some, it has been limited to the ideas of 'well born', i.e. 'descended from a previously ennobled ancestor'. The predominant sense now is some form of 'having the best [most virtuous] qualities', 'of high standards of morals and behaviour', often with connotations of courage, integrity and selflessness. This stretched to a general idea of 'virtue' and sometimes 'purity', 'incorruptibility', a meaning which appears to lie at the heart of some of the uses of the adjective noble in academic subjects.
  • In Chemistry,
    • a noble gas is one which does not combine readily with other elements - it was originally believed to combine with none at all. The noble gases form group 0 of the periodic table - in ascending order of atomic number, they are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. All have no colour, no smell and no taste. Only traces are found in the atmosphere of the Earth, except for argon: they have also been called rare gases. Their reactivity is low because their outer electron shells are complete (two electrons for helium; eight each for the rest). So they are also called inert gases.
    • The noble metals are also so-called because of their resistance to corrosion, oxidation and to the effects of acids. They include gold, palladium, platinum, and rhodium. (To continue the figurative use here of noble, metals which are not 'noble' are called base metals - as people who are not 'of noble birth' were often called base, or base-born.)
  • In Philosophy, History, Literature and other studies of culture, the idea of the noble savage is that the 'primitive' stage of human existence, untainted by the vices and errors of 'civilization', is more moral and more natural; an idealized and, some would say, sentimentalized ideal of human nature. The first use of this phrase has been traced to Dryden's play The Conquest of Granada (1672), but this is limited in its context. It became an important part of the way Romantic philosophers thought about mankind and nature, but "[although t]he concept of the noble savage has been applied by some modern commentators to the ideas of Rousseau, ... no closely corresponding phrase was used by Rousseau. Compare French bon sauvage (1868; 1613 denoting a particular American Indian)," OED.
  • In wine-making, noble rot (in French, pourriture noble) is a fungus (Botrytis cinerea) which, in good conditions, enables the production of highly valued sweet white wines, such as Tokay and Sauternes. In less fortunate conditions, it can ruin a crop of grapes.
  • In the eighteenth century, it became fashionable to talk of the noble art, a fashion much developed in the Victorian period, when it became part of the cult of manliness. The phrase (in full 'the noble art [sometimes science] of self-defence') was boxing, and the intention was to prepare young gentlemen to defend themselves (and their companions) against physical assault - although it may be doubted how much use the Marquess of Queensberry Rules could ever have been against a young thug with a cosh, a knife or steel toe-caps.
  • Noble was occasionally used in Middle English to describe a part of the body, when it meant 'important', 'vital', 'essential to life'; and, in relation to jewels etc 'precious'.

For some information on the two abstract nouns nobility and noblesse, see noblesse - nobility. For a discussion of the slang shortening to nob, see knob - knub - nob - nub.

Noble can also be the name in Scotland for the coastal salt-water fish Agonus cataphractus, in England usually called the armed bullhead, or, less usually, hooknose or pogge.

There was also in the later Middle Ages a coin called the noble - for more, see Noble (coin).