noir

Shortened from film noir, and from French noir. Doublet of negro.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnwɑː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnwɑɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)

noir (comparative more noir, superlative most noir)

1. (film, television) Of or pertaining to film noir, or the atmosphere associated with that genre
   • 2008, Jerold J. Abrams, Elizabeth Cooke, “Detection and the Logic of Abduction in The X-Files”, in The Philosophy of TV Noir‎, →ISBN, page 182:

     As a neo-Sherlock Holmes, however, Mulder is also a very noir version of the classic detective (just as Scully is a very noir Watson).

noir (countable and uncountable, plural noirs)

1. (film and television, uncountable) Film noir.
2. (film and television, countable) A production in the style of film noir.
   • 2007 January 29, Wendell Jamieson, “Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, Nights Are Noir in Fog City”, in New York Times‎:

     Several noirs, including “Raw Deal,” have been set here.

• Iron, Orin, RINO, Rion, inro, inrō, iron, nori, roin

• Noir (for the noun with the sense "black person")

Inherited from Middle French noir, from Old French noir, neir, from Latin nigrum. Doublet of nègre.

• IPA^(key): /nwaʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ
• Homophones: noirs, noire, noires

noir (feminine noire, masculine plural noirs, feminine plural noires)

1. black in colour

   Ce chat est noir. ― This cat is black.

2. dark

   Il fait encore noir dehors. ― It is still dark outside.

3. drunk; inebriated

   Il est noir. ― He is drunk.

4. black, of black ethnicity

   Il est noir. ― He is black.

noir m (plural noirs, feminine noire)

1. a black person
2. a person whose hair is dark
3. dark; darkness

   Je suis seul dans le noir. ― I'm alone in the dark.

• noircir
• noirceur

• Karipúna Creole French: nué, nég

• film noir

• “noir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French noir, neir.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnwɛr/

noir m (uncountable)

1. black

noir m (feminine singular noire, masculine plural noirs, feminine plural noires)

1. black

• French: noir, Noir
  • Karipúna Creole French: nué, nég

• neir

From Latin nigrum.

• (archaic) IPA^(key): /ˈnei̯ɾ/
• (classical) IPA^(key): /ˈnoi̯ɾ/, (northern) /ˈnei̯ɾ/

noir oblique singular, m (oblique plural noirs, nominative singular noirs, nominative plural noir)

1. black (color)

noir m (oblique and nominative feminine singular noire)

1. black; having a black color

• Middle French: noir (see there for further descendants)
• Norman: nièr, né; naer; nei
• Walloon: noer