Etymologically
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nature

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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
  • 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