national

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈnæʃ.ən.əl/, /ˈnæʃ.nəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French national,^[2][3][4] and was also formed from English nation + -al.^[2][5] The French word comes from nation, from Latin nātiō (“birth; race of people”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to a nation or country as a whole.^[8][4] MW dates the adjective 1580,^[9][3] Etymonline the 1590s^[2] and the HTOED 1591.^[10]

Semantic evolution

It was used in opposition to local or provincial, and in the United States to state.^[2] “Peculiar or common to the whole people of a country” is by the 1620s,^[2][10] and “established and maintained by the nation or its laws” from 1802.^[2] The noun meant “a citizen of a particular nation” from 1887.^[2][9] National guard was first an armed force of the French Revolution (1793), and in the United States from 1847 a name for the organized militia.^[2] National anthem is recorded by 1806.^[2]

Timeline

• 1580 – adjective, of a nation as a whole.^[9][3]
• 1620s – common to the whole people of a country.^[2]
• 1793 – national guard, in France.^[2]
• 1802 – established and maintained by the nation.^[2]
• 1806 – national anthem.^[2]
• 1847 – National Guard in the United States.^[2]
• 1887 – noun, a citizen of a nation.^[2][9]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a nation as a whole: national interests.
2. Relating to nationality.
3. Characteristic of the people of a nation: national dress.
4. Run or maintained by the government of a nation: a national park.
5. Devoted to one's own nation; patriotic.

Noun

1. A citizen of a particular country: foreign nationals.
2. A contest with competitors from all over a nation.

Word family

• nationally
• binational
• nonnational
• prenational
• pseudonational
• subnational
• supernational
• unnational

Related words

• nation
• nationality
• nationalism
• native

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)