nun
pron1
Pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of nothing.
nun
noun/nʌn/ · IE /nʊn/
Etymology From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), 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.
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.
- Thus, when the nuns came to the mission and we saw that instead of murmuring soft blessings and gliding seraphically over the grass in diaphanous habits, they wore smart blouses and skirts and walked, laughed and talked in low twanging tones very much like our own American missionaries did, we were very disappointed.1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 258:
2
Broadly A member of a similar female community in other confessions.
- a Buddhist nun
- 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.1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12:
- "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 [...]"1881, Pierce Egan, chapter 8, in Life in London, page 205:
4
A kind of pigeon with the feathers on its head like the hood of a nun.
- Derived terms
- corporate nun, dry as a nun's cunt, dry as a nun's nasty, nunate, nunation, nunbird, nun buoy, nun-coloured, nunhood, nunless, nunlet, nunlike, nun-like, nunly, Nun Monkton, nun moth, nunnation, nunnery, nunnish, Nun of the Visitation, nunship, nunsploitation, nun's thread, unnun
- Related terms
- nonnus, abbess, abbot, Covent Garden nun
- Hyponyms
- Poor Clare