nazione

Forms

nazione f (plural nazioni)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin natio (“birth; people, nation”), from nātus (“born”), the participle of nascor (“to be born”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed with the suffix of verbal abstracts -tiō from Proto-Italic *gnātiō.^[1][5] DEI compares the Old Umbrian form natine.^[6] The same Latin word gave French nation and Spanish nación, and spread to the European languages.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Brunetto Latini, before 1294, in the sense “birth, generation”, which went out of use in the 15th century.^[2][4] Boccaccio has the sense “people sharing language, history and civilisation” in 1353.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word moved from “birth” to “population, people”, and in Christian Latin the plural nationes (from Tertullian) meant the pagans; hence Saint Paul is l'apostolo delle nazioni.^[2][6][7] In Old Italian nazione could mean one's birth and family origin, as in Dante's “e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro”, and the community of merchants or students from one country living abroad.^[8][4]

Folena showed that nazione and patria led separate lives in 18th-century Europe until the revolutionary period fused them, and in 1798 Benincasa listed nazione among words that had come to Italy anew or with a changed meaning.^[2] DEI dates the sense “the citizens of a state as a social body” to 1789.^[6] Most derivatives came through French: nazionalismo (before 1872, Mazzini), nazionalità (1797), nazionalizzare.^[2][3] Nazionalsocialismo (1933) and nazista (1934) also came, probably through French, from German.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses nazione for “birth, generation”.^[2][4]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a people.^[2]
• 1488 – Nazionale is recorded in a document.^[2]
• 1789 – DEI's date for the sense “the body of a state's citizens”.^[6]
• 1797 – Nazionalità is recorded.^[2]
• 1798 – Benincasa lists nazione among new or changed words.^[2]
• Before 1872 – Mazzini uses nazionalismo.^[2]
• 1934 – Nazista appears in the Enciclopedia italiana.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nation: a people bound by a common history, language and culture and aware of it, whether or not it forms a single state: la nazione curda.^[4][7][8]
2. (by extension) A state or country; its territory: le nazioni dell'Africa, le Nazioni Unite.^[4][7][9]
3. The citizens of a state as a whole: un messaggio del presidente alla nazione.^[4][8]
4. (historical) A group of people, especially merchants or students, from the same country living abroad.^[4][10]
5. (archaic) Birth, family origin; generation.^[4][7][8]

Word family

• nazionale
• nazionalismo
• nazionalista
• nazionalistico
• nazionalità
• nazionalizzare
• nazionalizzazione
• nazionalsocialismo
• nazismo
• nazista
• denazionalizzare
• connazionale
• internazionale

Related words

• nascere
• nato
• nativo
• Latin natio

Usage notes

Zingarelli distinguishes nazione (a community with a shared heritage), stato (the legal and political body) and popolo (the inhabitants of a place).^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2558
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana