Green’s Dictionary of Slang

instinct or common sense, as opposed to actual learning.

1706		E. Baynard Cold Baths II 306: A Demi-brain’d Doctor of more Note than Nous, asked, in the amazed agony of his half-understanding [etc].
1785		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Lousiad’ Works (1794) I 229: Oh! aid, as lofty Homer says, my nouse To sing sublime the Monarch and the Louse.
1796		T. Morton Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 12: Well said, old one—you’ve some nous about you.
1800		in R. Polwhele in Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (1831) II [Appendix note] 37: In admiration of my own keen Nous That fram’d the model of so fine a house.
1819		Byron Don Juan canto II line 1037: The good old man had so much nous.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 100: With all his nous, however, it appears, he could not escape rustication.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 18: It [i.e. a given idea] showed that Mr. Wells had some nous in his head.
1840		R. Barham ‘Lay of St. Medard’ Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 288: Don’t, not even in fun, / Call anyone ‘snuff-coloured son of a gun! / Nor fancy, because a man’s nous seems to lack, / That whenever you please, you can ‘give him the sack!’.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 394: I will say the feller showed his nouce & good breeding in this difficklt momink!
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 3: I do not value three skips of a — mouse / Whether in this the Author shews his nous.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 June 2/3: Y—ou see from this list, that is if you’ve got nous / Z—anies abound in our Parliament House.
1862		J.A. Hardwick ‘Rob the Rhymer’ in Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 69: Shakespeare be blowed, he never showed Such nouse as me at rhyming.
1869		Sportsman (London) 8 Sept. 2/1: Notes on News [...] There are many gentlemen [...] who would gladly be assisted by a mother-in-law with nous.
1878		J.H. Nicholson ‘Bunkum in Parvo’ Opal Fever 106: Methinks I’m posessed of some little nous!
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Nouse - Comprehension, perception.
1883		E.J. Milliken Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 15: They self-deemed astute and ‘snide,’ / Of nous bereft, low chaff the bar-queen golden dyed.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 77: Give me the old-fashioned waiter, with a bit of nous about him, the waiter who becomes part and parcel of the house.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 11/3: I’m Briggs of the fat Upper ’Ouse, / Where I chairman committes with ‘nous’ .
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 25 June 1s/1: You cavilling, snivelling snitcher, / You don’t have the nous of a ditcher.
1937		P. Morris [trans.] Bernanos Diary of a Country Priest 18: They read stacks of books but never have the nouse [sic] to understand what is meant when we say the Church is the Bride of Christ.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 211: A man who didn’t have the guts to fight for his country, or the nous to join the Amy and then desert.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 41: If they used their nous, nobody need be a wake-up.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 66: Nobody around to start giving you instructions [...] Be up to you to use some nouse.
1974		A. Pierrepoint Executioner 86: [E]ven if I had had a drink, I should have had the nous not to show it.
1984		W. Ammon et al. Working Lives 89: Use your nouse.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Unfortunately the poor fellow either didn’t have the time or the nous to break his fall.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 73: Burdened with all the prejudice and none of the nous of the street.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 202: Getting anything out of Tilbury takes nous.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] She didn’t need much nous to see he was in a troublesome mood.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] If they had any nous [...] they might even think about what they were there for in the first place.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 510: ‘They had the leadership clout of a gnat’.