innatus

Forms

innātus, -a, -um; first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin innascor (“to be born in, spring up in”).^[1][3][4] The verb is made of in- (“in”) and nāscor (“to be born”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terence has it first, in the Hecyra, where a fault is said to be inborn in young people.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was said mostly of qualities and dispositions that belong to someone by nature.^[1] Cicero sets what is innate against what is acquired from outside, and speaks of an innate desire for knowledge and of notions of the gods that are innate rather than implanted;^[1][3] Caesar calls rashness innate in a whole people, and Virgil gives the bees an inborn love of gain.^[1][4] Pliny the Elder applies it to bodily conditions as well, such as baldness.^[1]

Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “inborn, innate”.^[7] The adjective passed into Italian as innato,^[3] and English borrowed it in the early 15th century as innate, “existing from birth”.^[6]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence calls a fault inborn in young people.^[1][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts innate qualities with acquired ones and speaks of an innate desire for knowledge.^[1][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes rashness as innate in a people.^[1][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil speaks of the bees' inborn love of possession.^[1]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of bodily traits such as baldness.^[1]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as innate.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of qualities, dispositions) inborn, natural, innate.^[1][2][3]

Related words

• innascor
• nāscor
• English innate

Usage notes

A separate adjective innātus “unborn, uncreated”, formed with the negative prefix in-, occurs in Christian writers: Tertullian asks whether God and matter are both unborn, and Prudentius uses it too.^[2][8][9][3]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.