Etymologically
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nascere

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈnaʃ.ʃe.re/[1]

Forms

nascere (first-person singular present nàsco, first-person singular past historic nàcqui, past participle nàto, auxiliary èssere)[1] Old Italian also had the past participles nasciuto and nascuto;[2][3] nasciare is a Sienese form.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nāscere, the spoken form of classical nāscī (“to be born”).[4][5][6][7] The deponent verb of written Latin was replaced in speech by an active form, which DÉRom reconstructs for Proto-Romance;[8][9] DEI notes that it already appears in Cato.[8][9] The present and future participles of the Latin verb, nascentem and nasciturum, survive in the learned nascente and nascituro.[4][7]

The verb is pan-Romance: French naître, Old Occitan naiser, Catalan naixer, Spanish nacer, Portuguese nascer, Sardinian nàschere and Romanian naște.[5][10] The Latin verb goes back to an older form with initial ⟨gn-⟩, still seen in the old form gnātus (“son”); it is an inchoative with the suffix -scō from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth”), the root of gignō (“to beget”) and genus.[11][1][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *gnāsk-e/o- and compares Gaulish Cintugnātus (“first-born”), a name and Ancient Greek κασίγνητος (kasígnētos, “brother, sister”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century, in the sense “to come into the world”.[4] Giacomo da Lentini signs one poem as the notary “who is born of Lentini” (ch'è nato da Lentino), and the Ritmo di sant'Alessio says “when the child was born” (foe natu).[2]

Semantic evolution

Before 1300 the verb was said of plants, which sprout (Guido Cavalcanti), and, from the end of the 13th century the Novellino uses it for things that arise or begin.[4] Old texts often used essere nato in the passive form fui nato, “I was born”, as Dante does in the Inferno.[12] The modern dictionaries add rivers that rise, stars that rise, teeth and hair that grow and feelings that spring up.[13][14]

Many phrases speak of luck at birth: nascere con la camicia, “to be born with a caul”, and nascere sotto una buona stella mean to be lucky, while non sono nato ieri means “I'm not naive”.[13][14][3] The noun nascita is recorded before 1597, and atto di nascita, the birth certificate, imitates French acte de naissance.[4] The infinitive is used as a noun, as in sul nascere “at the outset”, from the 16th century.[15]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano uses nascere “to be born”.[4]
  • Before 1250 – GRADIT's first date.[13]
  • Before 1294 – Nascimento “birth” appears in Brunetto Latini.[4]
  • Before 1300 – Guido Cavalcanti uses it of plants.[4]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for things that begin.[4]
  • Before 1597 – Nascita “birth” is recorded.[4]
  • 1795 – Atto della nascita “birth certificate” is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of people and animals, to be born: Mio nonno è nato in un paesino delle Marche.[13][14][15]
  2. With a predicate, to have a quality from birth: Pittori si nasce.[13][14][16]
  3. To be descended from: nascere da genitori contadini.[13][14]
  4. Of plants, to sprout or come up; of flowers, to open: Nell'orto sono nati i primi piselli.[13][14][15]
  5. Of teeth, hair and the like, to grow; of a lesion, to form.[13][16]
  6. Of a river, to rise: Il fiume nasce da una sorgente in montagna.[13][3][16]
  7. Of the sun or a star, to rise.[13][3]
  8. Of a feeling, idea or event, to arise, begin: Tra loro è nata una bella amicizia.[13][15]

Noun

  1. Birth, beginning, mostly in al nascere, sul nascere, dal nascere: un litigio soffocato sul nascere.[15][13]

Word family

  • nascimento
  • nascita
  • nascente
  • nascituro
  • rinascita
  • rinascere
  • rinascenza
  • rinascimento
  • nato

Usage notes

Nascere takes essere in compound tenses; its past participle is nato and its past historic nacqui.[1][14] Set phrases include nascere con la camicia “to be born lucky”, non sono nato ieri “I wasn't born yesterday” and vedere nascere qualcuno “to have known someone since birth”.[13][14][3]

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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  7. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 691
  8. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2549
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana