Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Latin word enascor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
96–55 BC, Lucretius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*ǵnh1-sk-e/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin nascor
Latin innascor
Latin natura
English nature
French nature
French naturel
German Natur
Latin natio
English nation
English national
English international
Latin renascor
Latin enascor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eːˈnaːs.kɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈnas.kor][1]

Forms

ēnāscor (present infinitive ēnāscī, perfect active ēnātus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + nāscor (“to be born”).[2][1][3] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *gnāsk-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵnh1-sk-e/o- (“to be born”), and compares Paelignian cnatois (“sons”) and Sanskrit जात (jātá-, “born man, son”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first among the poets in Lucretius (96–55 BC) and in prose in Varro (116–27 BC),[3][5] who writes of a stalk sprouting more slowly from the seed and of two teeth growing out of the chin.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to spring up or grow out of something, above all of plants: the TLL finds it most often in the writers on agriculture.[3][2] L&S note that it is rare before the Augustan period and absent from Plautus, Terence and Cicero.[6] Livy reports a laurel that grew on the stern of a warship, Columella vine shoots growing from a good part of the vine, and Tacitus brushwood sprung from the ground.[2] Of parts of the body and parasites, Pliny the Elder has the antlers of deer growing from the skin and worms produced in a rotting viper, and Suetonius a golden hump growing behind the neck.[2][7] Curtius and Pliny use it of islands newly risen from a river or the sea,[2] Manilius asks whether Rome grew from huts, and in Seneca's tragedy it is used of the newly dawned day.[2][8] The grammarian Agroecius distinguishes it from nāscor: nāscitur is said of what drops from the womb, ēnāscitur of what rises out of earth or water.[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to spring up or be born.[9]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it, the first poet to do so.[3][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of sprouting stalks and of teeth.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of a laurel growing on a ship.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of antlers and of a new island.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of an island risen in a river.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (of plants) To sprout, spring up, grow out.[2][6]
  2. (of parts of the body, parasites) To grow out, be produced.[2]
  3. (of islands) To rise up, emerge.[2]
  4. (poetic, of the day) To dawn.[2][8]

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 o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Enascor.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/enascor. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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