Etymologically
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nascentia

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Forms

nāscentia f (genitive nāscentiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin nāscēns (“being born”) + -ia, formed from the present participle of nāscor (“to be born”).[2][1][3] The TLL compares crēscentia and praenōscentia, made in the same way.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius uses it of the moment of birth, in his account of astrology: some astrologers, he says, explained horoscopes not from the birth but from the conception.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The classical word is rare: the OLD records only the sense “birth”.[2] In Late Latin medical translations such as the Latin Oribasius it meant the origin of a disease and also a growth or swelling on the body, and in the Old Latin Bible it was the produce of the fields.[3] Romance kept the medical sense: the TLL lists Old Italian nascenza and Old French naissance for an ulcer or tumour.[3]

Medieval Latin used it for a nativity in the astrological sense, a horoscope, and for offspring and growing crops.[6] In England William of Malmesbury records the oath per nascentiam Dei, “by the birth of God”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the time of birth.[3][5]
  • Late Latin – The Latin Oribasius uses it of the origin of a disease and of growths.[3]
  • Medieval Latin – A horoscope, offspring, crops.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Birth, the time of birth.[2][8][4]
  2. (Late Latin, medicine) The origin of a disease; a growth or swelling.[3]
  3. (Late Latin) What grows from the ground, produce.[3][7]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A nativity, horoscope.[6]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Offspring; crops.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press