noun

Etymology

From Middle English noun, from Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen (“name; noun”). The grammatical sense in Latin was a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name and nomen.

noun

1. (grammar, narrow sense) A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
2. (grammar, now rare, broad sense) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.
   Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of a Thing. Q. How many Sorts of Nouns are there? … A. A Noun Substantive, and a Noun Adjective. 1753, Thomas Martin, An Explanation of the Accidence and Grammar To the End of the Syntax in which The Grounds of each Rule in the Syntax are laid down in the plainest Manner. Compiled By way of Question and Answer, For the Use of Schools., London, page 1
   A Noun is a word which serves to name and distinguish some thing; …. There are two sorts of nouns; one is called a noun substantive, and the other a noun adjective. 1786, Signor Veneroni, The Complete Italian Master; Containing The best and easiest Rules for attaining that Language, London, page 6
   The first part of a compound word is either a noun (substantive, adjective, or numeral), an adverb, or a preposition, and in a very few cases a verb. 1852, Leonhard Schmitz, Elementary Latin grammar, Edinburgh, page 123
   Finally, there are many who limit the parts of speech to the noun, the verb, and the particle; referring to the first, the substantive, the adjective, and the pronoun (including the article), to the second the participle, to the third the remainder. 1856, R. G. Latham, Logic in its application to language, London, page 224
   Greek has the following parts of speech: substantives, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles. In this Grammar noun is used to include both the substantive and the adjective. 1956, Herbert Weir Smyth, Gordon M. Messing, “189. Parts of Speech”, in Greek Grammar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 44
   The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.] 1894, B. L. Gildersleeve, G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, Dover, published 2008, page 9
   The parts of which the sentence may consist are either inflected words: the noun (substantive and adjective) and the verb, the participle which shares the nature of both, and the pronoun; or uninflected words: prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions. 1993, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, A Vedic Grammar For Students, 1st Indian edition, Delhi, page 283
3. (computing) An object within a user interface to which a certain action or transformation (i.e., verb) is applied.
   Nouns are the data; verbs are the data transformations, and therefore verbs represent much of the complexity of systems. 1992, Brad A. Myers, David C. Smith, Bruce Horn, chapter 19, in Languages for Developing User Interfaces
   You choose either (1) the verb (change font) first and then select the noun (the paragraph) to which the verb should apply or (2) the noun first and then apply the verb. 2000, Jeff Raskin, The Humane Interface, page 59
   Thus, in essence, the mouse provides a capability for picking among a set of nouns (for instance, the file to which to apply some action) and verbs (such as "edit" or "insert") 2005, Barbara J. Grosz, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 149, number 4

verb

1. (transitive) To convert a word to a noun.
   What is not clear is how the nouning of verbs supports Simon's assumed correspondence between mechanical designing and intentional human responses. Is it the very nouning of verbs which indicates that the above correspondence exists? 1974, The Modern Schoolman, page 144
   For example, that females are different from but equal to males is oxymoronic by virtue of the nouned status of female and male as kinds of persons. 1992, Lewis Acrelius Froman, Language and Power: Books III, IV, and V
   However, too much nouning makes you sound bureaucratic, immature, and verbally challenged. Top executives convert far fewer nouns into verbs than do workers at lower levels. 2000, Andrew J. DuBrin, The complete idiot's guide to leadership