nun

nun¹

—nunlike, adj.

/nun/, n.

1. a woman member of a religious order, esp. one bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

2. any of various birds, esp. a domestic variety of pigeon.

[bef. 900; ME, OE nunne < ML nonna, fem. of nonnus monk]

nun²

/noohn, noon/, n.

1. the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

2. the consonant sound represented by this letter.

[1875-80; < Heb nun lit., fish]

/noon/, n.

the 25th letter of the Arabic alphabet.

[ < Ar; see NUN², NU¹]

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I

or Nu

Oldest of the Egyptian gods and father of Re, the sun god.

Nun represented the dark, turbulent waters out of which the cosmos was churned. Since it was believed that the primeval ocean continued to surround the ordered cosmos, the creation myth was reenacted each day as the sun rose from the waters. Nun was also thought to exist as subsoil water and as the source of the annual flooding of the Nile.

II

(as used in expressions)

Nun River

Nu Kua

Hsiung nu

Nu U

Thakin Nu

Nu Jiang

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▪ Egyptian god

also spelled  Nu  

      oldest of the ancient Egyptian gods and father of Re, the sun god. Nun's name means “primeval waters,” and he represented the waters of chaos out of which Re-Atum began creation. Nun's qualities were boundlessness, darkness, and the turbulence of stormy waters; these qualities were personified separately by pairs of deities. Nun, his female counterpart, Naunet, and three further pairs together formed the Ogdoad (group of eight gods) of Hermopolis (Hermopolis Magna). Various Egyptian creation myths retain the image of the emergence of a primeval hillock formed of mud churned from the chaotic waters of Nun. Since it was believed that the primeval ocean continued to surround the ordered cosmos, the creation myth was reenacted each day as the sun god rose from the waters of chaos. Nun was also thought to continue to exist as the source of the annual flooding of the Nile River.

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