nubile [M17th] Today a nubile girl is young and sexy, but originally she was simply old enough to marry, with no implication of attractiveness. The word comes from Latin nubilis, from the verb nubere, ‘to put on a veil, get married’. In English nubile at first had the same meaning as in Latin, but this use is now only found in anthropology and other technical contexts. Nubere is also the source of the English word nuptial [LME], ‘to do with weddings’, and ultimately derives from the Latin word for a cloud (the link is the obscuring veil), nubes, which is the root also of nuance [L18th].