innato

Forms

innato (feminine innata, masculine plural innatos, feminine plural innatas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin innātus (“inborn, natural”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin adjective is the participle of innāscī (“to be born in, arise in”), formed from in- (“in”) and nāscor (“to be born”).^[3][1][5][6] The simple verb goes back to *gnāskōr, from *ǵenh₁- (“to give birth”) with an inchoative suffix.^[1][7] Lewis and Short and Segura Munguía record the same form in ecclesiastical Latin with the sense “unborn”, formed with the negative prefix, which has a separate source.^[8][9]

The same Latin verb gave the inherited nacer, under which the BDELC lists this word.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC and Segura Munguía date the first record to the second quarter of the 15th century.^[2][10] In the Old Spanish Textual Archive it first appears in the Seville print of Josephus's Siete libros de la guerra judaica of 1492, and then in a Zaragoza print of 1494.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as what is natural and proper to a subject, as if born in it, and quotes Saavedra: Esta esperanza y este temor, innatos en el más ímpio y bárbaro pecho “this hope and this fear, innate in the most impious and barbarous breast”.^[12] Terreros records ideas and inclinaciones innatas, and Barcia the innate ideas of Descartes's philosophy, from which innatismo, the doctrine that ideas are born with reason, takes its name.^[13][14][10] The Academy has defined it as connatural, as if born with the subject, since 1817.^[15][3] In medicine it is a synonym of congénito.^[16] An 18th-century record from Cuzco spells it ygnata.^[17]

Timeline

• 1425–1450 – first record, according to the BDELC.^[2][10]
• 1492 – in the Seville print of Josephus.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[12]
• 1788 – recorded in Cuzco as ygnata.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy's definition “connatural”.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy first gives the etymology from innātus.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. innate, inborn: present in a person from birth and not acquired by learning or experience; connatural: Tiene un talento innato para la música.^[3][19][1]
2. (medicine) Congenital.^[16]

Word family

• innatismo

Related words

• nacer
• nato
• ingénito
• Latin innātus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nacer
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. innato
4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. innato
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 386
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 379
10. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 474
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. innato
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 274
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 352
14. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 126
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 495
16. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. innato
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. ignato
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 559
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. innato