Fwd: "noir" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <oedwotd at oup.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Subject: "noir" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com


OED Online Word of the Day
________________________________

noir, adj. and n.

DRAFT REVISION June 2009

Brit. /nw/, U.S. /nwr/  Forms: lME noyre, 16 (18- after French
feminine form) noire, 17- noir.Also with capital initial.  [< Middle
French, French noir black (c1160 in Old French, also c1100 as neir) <
classical Latin niger black (see NIGER n.1). With sense B. 1 compare
French noire a woman with dark hair (c1310 in Old French). In senses
A. 2 and B. 3 after FILM NOIR n. Compare also ROMAN NOIR n.]

    A. adj.

    1. Black, dark. Also fig.: bleak, desolate. (Freq. as
postmodifier, after French use.)
  In quot. 1979 with punning reference to the phrase bête noire.

a1425 (1399) Forme of Cury 140 in C. B. Hieatt & S. Butler Curye on
Inglysch (1985) 130 Sawse noyre for capouns yrosted.
1799 T. R. MALTHUS Trav. Diaries 17 June (1966) 70 A great part of the
two last stages presented as desolate & noir a picture as could well
be seen. 1843 E. S. WORTLEY Moonshine IV. 69 As my dress is in
tatters, I write three or four lines to calm your feelings, and beg
you to have a double-flounced gown, and a bonnet of dentelle noire,
ready for me to put on immediately that I rejoin you 1862 G. A. SALA
Seven Sons I. v. 110 Mrs. Cashman, the housekeeper, had carte blanche,
or rather carte noire, for the habiliments of woe. 1871 TENNYSON Last
Tournam. 433 A shield Showing a shower of blood in a field noir. 1979
Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Jan B6 There is a beat noire about several
of the other songs... The picture the Clash paints of contemporary
middleand lowerclass British life is noire, indeed. 1990 Punch 13 July
2 (advt.) Free [bag] with any purchase of two products or more from
the noir range (including one Aftershave or Eau de Toilette).

    2. That is in the style of a film noir; gloomy and fatalistic in
character; (also) using cinematic devices such as wide angles and
partial lighting; urban, morally ambiguous, anti-heroic. Cf. FILM NOIR
n.

1958 Times 1 Sept. 3/1 Jezebel is said to have remarkable theatrical
merit, and to be unmistakably noire. 1989 Atlantic Apr. 97/3 We see
the best of breed in all the most vital genres of the timescrewball
comedies, crime dramas, noir romanceswere made elsewhere. 1991 D.
ALLBERRY Walking Distance 47 She likes the sleek noir gleam of the
cruising cars, the backlit group of boys across the street. 2002
Publishers Weekly (Nexis) 21 Jan. 52 Leonard's new box-office clout
also attracted Soderbergh, who fashioned a noir gem from Out of Sight,
a film that Leonard calls ‘great’.

    B. n.

    1 A person with black hair. Obs. rare.

1687 A. BEHN Emperor of Moon I. i. 6, I cou'd not tell which I shou'd
look on most, sometimes my heart was charm'd with the gay Blonding,
then with the Melancholy Noire, annon the amiable brunet.

    2. a. Cards. The black colours in the game of rouge-et-noir (see
ROUGE n.1 4a).

1805 New Pocket Hoyle 117 He then deals the first card with its face
upwards, saying Noir, and continues dealing, until the cards turned
exceed thirty points in number. 1850 H. G. BOHN et al. Hand-bk. Games
343 The first parcel of cards played, is usually for noir, the second
for rouge. 1928 M. CAROL How to play Roulette iv. 56 The even money
chances [in the game of rouge et noir] are Rouge or Red, Noir or
Black, Coleur [sic] and Inverse. 1964 A. WYKES Gambling vii. 171
(caption) The dealer lays out two rows of cards (le noir and le rouge)
until each totals 31 or more. Players bet that one or the other row
will be nearer to 31 by placing chips on rouge or on noir.

    b. The black numbers in the game of roulette.

1850 H. G. BOHN et al. Hand-bk. Games 348 The other chances are also
designated on the green cloth.., ‘le pair, le passe, et le noir’. 1939
T. KING 21 Games to play for Money 31 Even chances are given when a
stake is placed on:..Noir, meaning any black number that turns up.
1964 A. WYKES Gambling ix. 215 The European betting table is divided
into six areas labelled pair, impair, passe, manque, rouge, and noir
(even, odd, high, low, red, black). 1993 Daily Mail (Nexis) 7 Jan. 7 A
roulette table has six even-chance possibilities: rouge and noir (red
and black), even and odd numbers (pair and impair), and high and low
numbers (passe and manque).

    3. A genre of crime film or detective fiction characterized by
cynicism, sleaziness, fatalism, and moral ambiguity; film noir. Also:
a film or novel in this genre. Cf. FILM NOIR n.

[1962 G. N. FENIN & W. K. EVERSON Western xiv. 278 Making the most
consistent contributions to what one might facetiously term ‘le
Western noir’ was Anthony Mann, a director brought up on hard-bitten
city thrillers.] 1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 2 Jan. K1 Films that
overflow with evil and discontent..two of the really classic noirs,
‘Out of the Past’ and ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, are on the AFI series. 1986
City Limits 15 Jan. 23 The film becomes a playful, fantastic evocation
of noir, escape movie, and comedy all rolled into one. 1995 N.Y. Rev.
Bks. 11 May 36/2 It is a marriage of two genres: the noir, in which
actions are dictated by undead evil from the past, and the caper
novel. 2000 D. TODD in N. Rafter Shots in Mirror i. 28 At first
glance, Gun Crazy seems to provide merely another portrait of noir's
femme fatale.

Visit the OED's home page at http://www.oed.com