Etymologically
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native

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈneɪ.tɪv/, US /ˈneɪ.t̬ɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English natif,[2][3] borrowed from Old French natif (“native, born in; raw, unspoiled”) and directly from Latin nātīvus (“innate, produced by birth”),[4][2] from nātus, past participle of nāscī (“to be born”) (Old Latin gnāscī),[4][2] related to gignere “to beget”,[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).[4] The noun is from the adjective and in part from Medieval Latin nātīvus.[4][2] It is a doublet of naive and related to nation, nature and kin.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Natural, inborn, hereditary: about 1374 in the OED,[5] about 1385 in Chaucer's Troilus according to Barnhart,[2] and the late 14th century in Etymonline.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the early 15th century it meant “born in a particular place, not exotic or foreign”, as in native land,[4] and also “born in servitude”, a sense now obsolete.[4][2] The noun first meant a person born in bondage, a serf (mid-15th century).[4][5] “One born in a certain place” is from 1535, in the Coverdale Bible.[2][4][5] From about 1600 it was applied to the original inhabitants of countries where Europeans held power,[4] American Indians by the 1630s.[4][5] It was used contemptuously of the locals from 1800.[4][5] In Australia it meant a white person born in the country (1861).[5] Of metals and minerals found pure in nature it is from the 1690s.[4] Native American was the name of a journal by about 1900, and activists adopted it in the early 1970s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1374 – natural, inborn.[5]
  • early 15th century – born in a place.[4]
  • c. 1450 – noun, a born serf.[5]
  • 1535 – one born in a place.[2]
  • c. 1600 – an original inhabitant.[4]
  • 1690s – of metals, pure.[4]
  • 1800 – the locals, contemptuously.[4]
  • early 1970s – Native Americans.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Existing in a person by nature; innate.
  2. Being such by birth or origin: a native Spaniard.
  3. Belonging to one by the place of one's birth: native land, native language.
  4. Originating or growing in a certain place; indigenous.
  5. Of a metal or mineral, occurring pure in nature.

Noun

  1. A person born in a particular place.
  2. An original inhabitant or lifelong resident of a place.
  3. An animal or plant that originated in a particular region.

Word family

  • natively
  • nativeness
  • nativism
  • unnative
  • native-born
  • nonnative
  • native companion
  • native son

Usage notes

The American Heritage distinguishes native, of birth or origin in a place, from indigenous, endemic, autochthonous and aboriginal.[6]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin