noblesse
nounEtymology From Middle English noblesse, from Anglo-Norman noblesse, noblesce et al., Old French noblace, nobleche et al., from noble (“noble”).
1
The nobility; peerage.
- Faire braunch of noblesse, flowre of cheualrie, / That with your worth the world amazed make, / How shall I quite the paines, ye suffer for my sake?1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- All gentlemen are almost obliged to it: and I know no reason we should give that advantage to the commonalty of England to be foremost in brave actions, which the noblesse of France would never suffer in their peasants1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
- Related terms
- ignoblesse, noblesse oblige