nationality

Etymology

It is formed from English national + -ity,^[2][3][4][5] perhaps partly after French nationalité;^[5] the OED compares the French word, recorded from 1778.^[2] The adjective national comes from Middle French national, from nation,^[2][5] and ultimately from Latin nātiō (“birth, race of people”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

National quality or character: 1691, in a text on milled-lead sheathing.^[2][3] Etymonline gives the first sense as separate existence as a nation, national unity.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1754 (in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison) the word also meant attachment to one's nation, national feeling, a sense now rare.^[2][7] The sense "national origin or identity", and in law the status of being a citizen of a particular state, is recorded from 1763 in the OED,^[2] from 1828 in Etymonline, which notes that it gradually shaded into "race, ethnicity".^[5] From 1832 it also meant a group of people forming a nation or an ethnic group,^[2][5] and in the 19th century it was used of separate existence as a nation, national independence (1832–83).^[2] In art and literature it meant distinctively national quality (1827–76).^[2]

Timeline

• 1691 – national quality or character.^[2][3]
• 1754 – national feeling, patriotism (now rare).^[2]
• 1763 – national origin; the status of a citizen of a state.^[2]
• 1797 – a national trait or peculiarity (obsolete).^[2]
• 1832 – a national or ethnic group; national independence (obsolete).^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The status of being a citizen of a particular nation: She holds dual nationality.
2. A group of people sharing descent, history, language or culture; a nation or ethnic group: Twenty nationalities live in the district.
3. National character or quality.
4. Existence as a separate nation; national independence.

Related words

• nation
• national
• nationalism
• native

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press