nature

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈneɪ.tʃə/, US /ˈneɪ.tʃɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nature,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French nature (“nature, being, principle of life; character, essence”) and directly borrowed from Latin nātūra (“birth; natural character, constitution; the universe”),^[4][5] from nātus, the past participle of nāscī (“to be born”),^[4][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[4][2] It is related to native and nation.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“The restorative powers of the body, bodily processes”: about 1275^[5] or the late 13th century.^[4] The OED's earliest sense, before 1300, is the essential qualities of a thing.^[8]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century nature was the force or process of the material world, which produces living things and keeps order.^[4] The innate character or disposition of a person is from about 1380,^[5] and inherent creative power from about 1385.^[5] Nature personified, Mother Nature, is also Middle English.^[4] Human nature is from 1526.^[5][8] Nature and nurture have been paired and contrasted since Shakespeare's Tempest,^[4] and Francis Galton used the jingle in 1875.^[4] The material world and its features, as distinct from human civilization, is from 1662^[5] or the 1660s, especially in state of nature, the condition of humans before organized society.^[4] Nature worship is by 1840.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – bodily processes.^[5]
• mid-14th century – the forces of the material world.^[4]
• c. 1380 – innate character.^[5]
• 1526 – human nature.^[5]
• 1662 – the material world.^[5]
• 1840 – nature worship.^[4]
• 1875 – nature and nurture (Galton).^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The physical world and everything in it that is not made by people, including plants, animals and landscapes.
2. The forces that control the physical world: the laws of nature.
3. The basic character or qualities of a person or thing: human nature.
4. A kind or sort: problems of this nature.
5. A primitive state untouched by civilization.

Word family

• naturelike

Related words

• antenatal
• innate
• nascent
• natal
• nation
• national
• nationality
• native
• nativity
• nativism
• natural
• naturism
• naturist
• naturalism
• naturopathy
• perinatal
• prenatal
• naturalist
• naive
• pregnant
• nurture

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press