nerval

¹

[nur-vuhl]

adjective

1. neural.

Nerval

²

[ner-val]

noun

1. Gérard de Gérard Labrunie, 1808–55, French writer.

Nerval

/ nɛrval /

noun

1. Gérard de (ʒerar də), real name Gérard Labrunie. 1808–55, French poet, noted esp for the sonnets of mysticism, myth, and private passion in Les Chimères (1854)

Word History and Origins

Origin of nerval¹

1630–40; < Late Latin nervālis of, belonging to nerves, equivalent to Latin nerv ( us ) nerve + -ālis -al ¹

Example Sentences

And it is the title of French poet and novelist Gérard de Nerval’s self-documentary of transition into madness.

From Los Angeles Times

I think at one point Malcolm’s dæmon refers to her as bearing the mark of “Le soleil noir de la mélancolie,” which is a quotation from a poem by Gérard de Nerval which I like very much.

From The New Yorker

“Our dreams are a second life,” she writes, quoting the French romantic Gérard de Nerval.

From Los Angeles Times

“Notre Dame is good and old: Perhaps we’ll even see her bury Paris, whose birth she witnessed,” the poet Gérard de Nerval once said.

From Seattle Times

After the fire started, a few verses by the 19th-century French poet Gérard de Nerval began circulating on Twitter: “Notre Dame est bien vieille: on la verra peut-être/Enterrer cependant Paris qu’elle a vu naître.”

From The Guardian