Other forms: nobles, noblest, nobler
Noble means morally high and generous — acting from principle rather than advantage. A noble gesture, a noble cause, noble intentions.
The older sense is of high birth: a noble family, the nobility, a noble title. The two have been tangled for centuries, on the assumption that rank produced character. As a noun, a noble is an aristocrat. In chemistry, the noble gases are the ones that refuse to react with anything, named for the aloofness of the aristocracy. Note nobility and noblesse oblige, the idea that privilege carries obligation.
1adjectivenobleMorally high and generous.
“It was a noble thing to do and it cost him the job.”
synonyms: honourable, high-minded
2adjectivebirthOf high birth or rank.
“The house was built by a noble family in 1620.”
3nounmemberA member of the aristocracy.
“Two nobles were executed and the rest fled.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
noble is a quality of high standing.
Latin nobilis meant knowable or well-known, from noscere, to know — the same root as notice and notion. The nobility were simply the people everybody had heard of, and the moral sense was read into the rank afterwards.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵneh₃-
Latin
nōbilis — knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent
Old French
noble
Middle English
noble
English, today
noble
Built from
From Middle English noble, from Old French noble, borrowed from Latin nōbilis (“knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent”), from nosco, gnosco (“to know”). نبيل. Displaced native athel, from Old English æþele.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA