Nun

Nun

Noun · /nʌn/

Definition

A woman who has taken religious vows and lives as a member of a religious community, typically under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; a member of a female religious order in the Christian tradition; also used in some other religious traditions for equivalent roles.

Origin

From Old English nunne (a nun, a vestal), from Late Latin nonna (a nun, also used as a term of address for an elderly woman or a grandmother), possibly from a reduplication of a childish form — comparable to the child-language terms for grandmother in many languages. Related to monk via the Late Latin pairing of nonnus (a monk, an elderly man) and nonna. The word appearing across most European languages in similar forms: French nonne, German Nonne, Italian suora and monaca, Spanish monja. The vow structure of poverty, chastity, and obedience — the evangelical counsels — being the foundation of monastic religious life in the Catholic and some other Christian traditions.