Word.ws English Dictionary

courtnoll

courtnoll noun: a courtier.

Noun

courtnoll (plural courtnolls)

  1. (obsolete, contemptuous) A courtier.
    • Now euery lowt muſt haue his ſonne a Courtnoll,and thoſe dunghill dꝛudges ware ſo pꝛoud,that they wil pꝛeſume to wear on their feet,what kings haue woꝛne on their heades.1592, Robert Greene, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier, page 17, archived from the original on 18 Jan 2024
    • "Heere," quoth the Miller, "good fellowe, Ile drinke to thee
      & to all the courtnolls that curteous bee."
      "I pledge thee," quoth our King, "& thanke thee heartilye for my good welcome in euerye degree ;
      & heere in like manner I drinke to thy sonne."
      "doe then," saies Richard, "& quicke let it come."17ᵗʰ c., as printed in the Percy Manuscripts, King Henry II and the Miller of Mansfield, page 151, stanza 14, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2006

Forms of courtnoll

pluralcourtnolls
alternative formcourtnal
alternative formcourtnold
alternative formcourtnole
alternative formcourtnowle

Origin of courtnoll

From court + noll (“head”), with second part also found in such contemptuous expressions as "drunken noll", compare -head.

Questions about courtnoll

What does courtnoll mean?
Courtnoll means a courtier.
What part of speech is courtnoll?
Courtnoll is a noun.
What is the plural of courtnoll?
The plural of courtnoll is courtnolls.

Words near courtnoll in the dictionary

  1. courtmen
  2. Courtnage
  3. Courtnages
  4. Courtney
  5. Courtneys
  6. courtnoll
  7. Courtois
  8. Courtoises
  9. Courtright
  10. Courtrights
  11. courtroom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: courtnoll (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “courtnoll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/courtnoll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.