nascenza

Forms

nascenza f (plural nascenze)^[1] Old variants are nascenzia and nascienza.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nascentia (“birth”), formed from nāscēns, the present participle of nascor (“to be born”), with the suffix -ia.^[3][4][5][1] In Vitruvius the Latin noun meant birth and what grows from the soil, and in Late Latin, in Oribasius, an excrescence.^[6][2] The sense “birth, offspring” is still recorded in Italy in the 9th century.^[6] The REW lists the Old Italian word under nascentia in the sense “ulcer”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to the first half of the 14th century and Zingarelli to 1353, with the sense “birth”.^[3][8] Bencivenni writes that man understands the frailty di sua nascenza, “of his birth”, and a translation of Livy has la nascenza de' suoi nipoti, “the birth of his grandsons”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the noun also meant a swelling or boil.^[6][9] Boccaccio tells how the King of France had una nascenza in his chest, badly treated, which became a fistula.^[9][10] Astrology spoke of la nascenza dell'uomo, the moment of a person's birth.^[9] DEI also records a 14th-century botanical use and a sense “mould, product of decay”, and the sense “excrescence” lives on in Calabrian and Sicilian.^[6] Other writers used it for “birth” rather than nascenza: Bonvesin de la Riva has nascione and Giacomo da Lentini nascimento.^[6]

The word is now obsolete in its old senses.^[3][8] Physical chemistry uses nascenza colloidale for the passing colloidal state of a poorly soluble substance.^[11][10]

Timeline

• 9th century – Medieval Latin nascentia “birth, offspring” is recorded in Italy.^[6]
• First half of the 14th century – Italian nascenza “birth” appears.^[3]
• 1353 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) Birth, nativity; by extension, origin.^{[3][11][4][1]}
2. (archaic) A swelling, excrescence or boil.^{[3][11][4][1]}
3. (chemistry) nascenza colloidale: the passing colloidal state of a poorly soluble substance that does not crystallize even above saturation.^[11][10]

Related words

• nascente
• rinascenza
• nascere
• nascita
• Latin nascor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2548
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier