English
noise
Noise comes from Middle English noyse ‘a noise’, and goes back to Old French noise.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400noise1‘a dispute’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500noyse1‘a noise’
- Englishearliest quotation 1526noise1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English noise
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “When this was noysed aboute, the multitude cam togedder…”.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400noiseWiktionary, English noise‘a dispute’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500noyseWiktionary, English noise‘a noise’
- Englishearliest quotation 1526noiseWiktionary, English noise. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “When this was noysed aboute, the multitude cam togedder…”
The story
According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (‘disgust, nausea’); according to others, from Latin noxia (‘hurt, harm, damage, injury’); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense. Potentially a reduced form of Old French enoiier (‘to bother, to disturb’), from Latin inodio (‘to make repulsive’) - which would make it a doublet of English annoy (‘to bother, to irritate’) and English ennui (‘boredom, jadedness, depression’).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with noise, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us ‘boat’
- navy ← nave ← navie ← nāvigia ← nāvigō
- naval ← nāvālis ← nāvis
- navigation ← nāvigātiōnem ← nāvigātiō ← nāvigō ← nāvis
- navigate ← nāvigātus ← nāvigō ← nāvis
- navigator ← nāvigō ← nāvis
- navigable ← navigabilis ← nāvigō ← nāvis
- nao ← nau ← nau ← navis ← *naus ~ *nāwis
- nau ← nāvis ← *naus ~ *nāwis
- nef ← nāvem
- nacelle ← nacele ← naucella ← nāvis ← *naus ~ *nāwis
- navicular ← naviculaire ← nāviculāris ← nāvicula ← nāvis
through Ancient Greek ναῦς ‘ship’
- nautical ← nautique ← nauticus ← ναυτικός ← ναύτης
16 more relatives in the full family tree
No ads, ever.
Explore everything descended from noise →
No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.
Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app
Today it means
noun Various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “noise”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old French noise / noise