NoSQL is a name coined by the italian Carlo Strozzi, re www.strozzi.it/cgi-bin/CSA/tw7/I/en_US/NoSQL. He meant no SQL and pronounced it noseequel. It is today, rather strangely a database system built on simple ascii (text) files. In the new NoSQL movement, as the Strozzi website calls it, please checkout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoSQL, it means not only SQL. This, of course, means that it is trying to span the good parts of good old relational technology with some new things in areas where SQL and relational databases are considered weak. NoSQL is not one technology but rather a cover name for several attempts to solve the perceived problems of RDBMSs.