Mysteries of vernacular: Noise - Jessica Oreck

Mr. is a vernacular noise. Any sound or combination of sounds. To understand the etymology of noise, we must begin with the Greek word "Norse," meaning ship.

In Latin, "nor" spawned two new words: "novice," which also refer to a single ship, and in turn gave rise to words like "naval" and "navigate," and "nausea," which meant quite literally ship sickness.

Nauseas acceptance into English eventually took two forms. The first, in the 16th century, maintained its spelling and most of its meaning, referring to all forms of stomach turbulence, ocean related or not.

The second addition to the English dictionary was a transmutation from Latin through Old French. As this transformation occurred, nauseas meanings shifted to encompass a more general sense of discomfort, and its spelling changed to "noise."

From this, of course, comes the modern word "noise," which was gradually modified from a definition associated with discomfort into one denoting an undesirable sound, eventually becoming an umbrella term for everything auditory, upsetting or not.