Etymologically
Log in

innato

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪn.na.toː], [ɪnˈnaː.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈin.na.to], [inˈnaː.to][1]

Forms

innatō (present infinitive innatāre, perfect active innatāvī, supine innatātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, on”) + natō (“to swim”).[2][3] De Vaan explains natō as built on an old participle of nō (“to swim”),[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *(s)nāje/o- (“to swim”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh2- (“to swim, float”).[4] Cognate with Old Irish snaïd (“to swim”) and Ancient Greek νήχω (nḗkhō, “to swim”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest passage the OLD quotes is in Cicero's De natura deorum, of little fish that swim into a gaping shell: cum pisciculi parvi in concham hiantem innataverunt.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.[5] It is used of swimming in or on water, as Pliny's dog that swam to hold up a corpse thrown into the Tiber, and of a boat floating on the waves in Germanicus.[2] Virgil uses it with an accusative, undam innatat alnus, “the alder boat swims the wave”.[5] Of things lying on a surface it means to float: in Horace lettuce that floats on a sour stomach after wine, that is, stays undigested.[2][5] Celsus uses it of the patella, which lies on top without being attached to any bone.[2] Of water it means to flow over: Pliny has the Nile flooding the land, Ovid fresh water flowing over the sea,[5] and Lucan a shallow wave running over the surface.[2] Quintilian speaks figuratively of a facility with words that only floats on the surface.[5]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of fish swimming into a shell.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of food floating undigested in the stomach.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of the loosely attached patella.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of swimming and of the Nile's flood.[2][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To swim in or on; of a boat, to float on; to swim into.[2][5][1]
  2. To float on the surface (of a liquid); of food, to lie undigested; of things loosely attached, to lie on top.[2][5]
  3. Of water, to flow over, overflow.[2][5][1]
  4. (figurative) To float on the surface, be superficial.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de