region of Africa bordering the Red Sea south of Egypt, ultimately from a local word, said to be related to Coptic noubti "to weave," or from Nubian nub "gold." In the fashion sense "woman's light scarf" it is from French, from Latin nubes "cloud" (see nuance).
Entries linking to nubia
nuance n.
"slight or delicate degree of difference in expression, feeling, opinion, etc.," 1781, from French nuance "slight difference, shade of color" (17c.), from nuer "to shade," from nue "cloud," from Gallo-Roman *nuba, from Latin nubes "a cloud, mist, vapor," from PIE *sneudh- "fog" (source also of Avestan snaoda "clouds," Latin obnubere "to veil," Welsh nudd "fog," Greek nython, in Hesychius "dark, dusky").
According to Klein, the French secondary sense is a reference to "the different colors of the clouds." In reference to color or tone, "a slight variation in shade," by 1852; of music, by 1841 as a French term in English.
Nubian adj.
"pertaining to or belonging to Nubia," c. 1730, from Medieval Latin Nubianus, from Nubia (see Nubia). As an adjective, c. 1400 in reference to an Eastern sect; 1788 as "a Nubian slave" in Egypt; 1790 as a type of horse; 1899 as a type of black dress material.