Etymology: Origin uncertain; rare before the beginning of the 17th cent. Perhaps irregularly < Anglo-Norman and Middle French nos, nous, nus, plural of no, nu, nou, etc., knot (see node n.), or perhaps < the corresponding Old French nominative singular form nos (and hence a much earlier loan than the date of first attestation would suggest), or < such a form generalized as base form in French(although evidence is lacking for this); compare also Old Occitan and Catalan forms cited s.v. node n. However, the final -e of the Middle English form nose, and the pronunciation with voiced final consonant indicated by the spelling nooze, would perhaps argue against any of these explanations.The pronunciation /nuːz/ is suggested by rhyme evidence in E. Coles Compleat Eng. Schoolmaster (1674), and is noted by several 19th-cent. sources including Knowles (1835), Smart (1857) and Stormonth (1884). It is given as a variant beside /nuːs/ by Worcester (1860), Cooley (1863) and Webster (1890), and is recorded with subordinate status in H. Michaelis & D. Jones Phonetic Dict. Eng. Lang. (1913), and all the editions of D. Jones Phonetic Dict. Eng. from the earliest (1917) up to and including the fourteenth edition (1977). Forms with voiced final consonant may perhaps have developed as an analogical pronunciation in the corresponding verb noose v.: see E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §356.

Etymology: < noose n.