nacer

Forms

nacer (first-person singular present nazco, first-person singular preterite nací, past participle nacido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the verb nasçer or nascer (nasçe, nasco, nasçio), beside naçer (naçio).^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades noted that the verb was formerly written nascer and that it takes a z in some present forms (nazco, nazca).^[4] Its old past participle was nado, which survives in the compound entenado “stepchild”.^[5][6] Aragonese has naxer, and Old Aragonese and Old Riojan naixer.^[7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nasçer, inherited from Late Latin nascere (“to be born”), the active form that Late Latin made of the classical deponent nāscor.^[1][8][9][5]

The same verb is Portuguese nascer, French naître, Italian nascere and Romanian naște.^[10][11]

The deponent goes back to *gnāskōr, with the inchoative suffix -scō; the older initial consonant cluster survives in gnātus (“born”).^[1][12] De Vaan reconstructs *ǵn̥h₁-sk-e/o- “to be born”, from the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth”).^[12][1][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb from the second half of the 10th century.^[5] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) uses it for the star of Bethlehem and for Christ: poco timpo á que es nacida “it is not long since it rose” and Nacido es el criador “the Creator is born”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

By the 13th century the verb was used for the birth of animals and people, the sprouting of plants and the appearance of hair, feathers or leaves, and for descent from a family (in Alfonso X's prose, 1280).^[3] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds the rising of the sun and the stars, with the figure of courtiers mirando más al Sol que nace, que al que se pone “looking more at the rising than at the setting sun”.^[4] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 also lists the source of a river, the start of one thing from another, and the sense “to follow from”.^[14]

Later senses include “to be destined for something” (nacer para) and “to begin an experience” (nacer al amor); the reflexive nacerse is said of a seed that germinates in the open air and of a seam that frays.^[8][15] In much of Latin America and in New Mexico nacerle a uno means “to feel the urge to do something unasked”.^[16][17][1]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the first record, according to Corominas.^[5]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos: Nacido es el criador.^[6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's prose uses nascer for children and for plants.^[3]
• c. 1280 – the derivative nacimiento.^[5]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin nascor, orior and exorior as its equivalents.^[18]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be born: to come out of the mother's womb, of the egg, or of the seed: Su hija nació en abril.^[8][1]
2. (intransitive) Of hair, feathers, flowers or fruit: to appear, to sprout.^[8]
3. (intransitive) Of a star or the sun: to rise above the horizon.^[8]
4. (intransitive) To begin to exist: El pueblo nació alrededor de un castillo.^[8]
5. (intransitive) Of a spring or river: to rise, have its source.^[8][1]
6. (intransitive) To start from something else, as if coming out of it; to follow from another thing.^[8]
7. (intransitive, with para) To have a natural gift for something, be destined for it.^[8]
8. (reflexive) Of a seed or root: to germinate in the open air; of cloth or a seam: to fray.^[8]
9. (Latin America, colloquial, with an indirect object) To feel like doing something of one's own accord: Lo ayudo porque me nace.^[16][17][1]

Word family

• nacimiento
• nacencia
• nacido
• naciente
• renacer
• entenado
• nacedero

Related words

• cognado
• innato
• nación
• nada
• natal
• natalicio
• natalidad
• nativo
• natural
• naturaleza
• Latin nāscor

Usage notes

Volver a nacer “to be born again” is said of escaping a mortal danger, and haber nacido tarde of someone with little experience.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nacer
3. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. nacer
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 642
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nacer
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nacer
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. nacer
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. nacer
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. nacer
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. nacer
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 593
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1180
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. nacer
17. ^ a b Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 137
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 385
19. ^ 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. nacer