different between brave vs noble

English

Etymology

From Middle French brave, borrowed from Italian bravo, itself of uncertain origin (see there).

Pronunciation

• enPR: br?v, IPA^(key): /b?e?v/
• Rhymes: -e?v

Adjective

brave (comparative braver, superlative bravest)

1. Strong in the face of fear; courageous.

   Synonyms: bold, daring, doughty, orped, resilient, stalwart

   Antonyms: cowardly, fearful, mean, weak

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:

     Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I need your help.

   • 1987, Michael Grumley, The Last Diary:

     […] he has been so brave, giving it all a dignity.

2. (obsolete) Having any sort of superiority or excellence.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Plantations

     Iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth.

   • February 18, 1666, Samuel Pepys,, diary entry

     It being a brave day, I walked to Whitehall.

3. Making a fine show or display.
   • 1611, John Cooke, Greene's Tu Quoque

     For I have gold, and therefore will be brave. / In silks I'll rattle it of every color.

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, May-Day

     Frog and lizard in holiday coats / And turtle brave in his golden spots.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

Synonyms

• (courageous): See also Thesaurus:brave

Translations

Noun

brave (plural braves)

1. (dated) A Native American warrior.
2. (obsolete) A man daring beyond discretion; a bully.
   • 1677, John Dryden, The State of Innocence

     Hot braves like thee may fight.

3. (obsolete) A challenge; a defiance; bravado.

Translations

Verb

brave (third-person singular simple present braves, present participle braving, simple past and past participle braved)

1. (transitive) To encounter with courage and fortitude, to defy, to provoke.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act IV, sc. 3:

     For Cassius is aweary of the world;

     Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;

     Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,

     Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rote,

     To cast into my teeth.

   • 1670, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards:

     The ills of Love, not those of Fate, I fear,

     These I can brave, but those I cannot bear […]

   • 1773, A Farmer, Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, Number 53, December 2

     […] but they [Parliament] never will be braved into it.

   After braving tricks on the high-dive, he braved a jump off the first diving platform.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To adorn; to make fine or showy.
   • ca. 1590–92, William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, sc. 3 (addressed to a tailor; first use in sense of "adorn", second and third uses in sense of "confront"):

     Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave

     not me. I will neither be faced nor braved.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Baver

Esperanto

Etymology 1

brava +? -e

Adverb

brave

1. bravely, valiantly

Etymology 2

From Italian bravo.

Interjection

brave

1. bravo

French

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Italian bravo. Compare Spanish, Portuguese bravo. Doublet of bravo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?av/

Adjective

brave (plural braves)

1. brave
2. honest

Synonyms

• courageux
• bon
• honnête
• preux

Noun

brave m (plural braves)

1. hero

Related terms

Further reading

• “brave” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• baver

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?v?

Adjective

brave

1. inflection of brav:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Adjective

brave

1. feminine plural of bravo

Norman

Etymology

From Late Latin *bravus.

Adjective

brave m or f

1. brave

Derived terms

• bravement (“bravely”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

brave

1. definite singular/plural of brav

Pali

Alternative forms

Verb

brave

1. first-person singular present/imperative middle of br?ti (“to say”)

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French noble, from Latin n?bilis (“knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent”), from n?scere, gn?scere (“to know”).

Displaced native Middle English athel (“noble”) (from Old English æþele) and Middle English hathel, hathelle (“noble, nobleman”) (from the merger of Old English æþele (“nobleman”) and Old English hæleþ (“hero”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n??b?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?no?b?l/
• Rhymes: -??b?l
• Hyphenation: no?ble

Noun

noble (plural nobles)

1. An aristocrat; one of aristocratic blood. [from 14th c.]

   Antonyms: commoner, plebeian

2. (historical) A medieval gold coin of England in the 14th and 15th centuries, usually valued at 6s 8d. [from 14th c.]
   • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:

     I lyked no thynge his playe, / For yf I had not quyckely fledde the touche, / He had plucte oute the nobles of my pouche.

   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     And who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others? not he who takes up armes for cote and conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt.

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, page 93:

     There, before the high altar, as the choir's voices soared upwards to the blue, star-flecked ceiling, Henry knelt and made his offering of a ‘noble in gold’, 6s 8d.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:nobleman

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

noble (comparative nobler or more noble, superlative noblest or most noble)

1. Having honorable qualities; having moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean or dubious in conduct and character.

   Synonyms: great, honorable

   Antonyms: despicable, ignoble, mean, vile

2. Grand; stately; magnificent; splendid.

3. Of exalted rank; of or relating to the nobility; distinguished from the masses by birth, station, or title; highborn.

   Synonym: superior

   Antonyms: inferior, plebeian

4. (geometry, of a polyhedron) Both isohedral and isogonal.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• honorable

Further reading

• noble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• noble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• noble at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Bolen, Nobel

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin n?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /?n?.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?n?.ble/

Adjective

noble (masculine and feminine plural nobles)

1. noble

Derived terms

• gas noble
• noblement
• noblesa

Noun

noble m or f (plural nobles)

1. noble

Further reading

• “noble” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “noble” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “noble” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “noble” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French noble, borrowed from Latin n?bilis according to the TLFi dictionary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?bl/

Adjective

noble (plural nobles)

1. noble, aristocratic
2. (of material) non-synthetic, natural; fine
3. noble, worthy (thoughts, cause etc.)

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Danish: nobel
• ? German: nobel

Noun

noble m or f (plural nobles)

1. noble (person who is noble)

References

• “noble” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Further reading

• “noble” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?no?bl?/

Adjective

noble

1. inflection of nobel:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French noble, from Latin n?bilis.

Adjective

noble

1. noble

Descendants

• English: noble

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin n?bilis.

Adjective

noble m or f (plural nobles)

1. noble

Old French

Etymology

From Latin n?bilis.

Adjective

noble m (oblique and nominative feminine singular noble)

1. noble; upper-class; well-bred

   Synonyms: avenant, cortois

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin n?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?noble/, [?no.??le]

Adjective

noble (plural nobles)

1. noble

Derived terms

Related terms

• nobleza

Swedish

Adjective

noble

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of nobel.

Anagrams

• Nobel, nobel