natio

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈnaː.ti.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈnat.t͡si.o]^[1]

Forms

nātiō f (genitive nātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin nāscor (“to be born”) + -tio.^[2][1] The verb is inherited from Proto-Italic *gnāsk-e/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁-sk-e/o- (“to be born”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[3][4] who asks “of what nation was he then?”.^[2] An inscription from Praeneste records a gift to Fortuna “for the sake of a birth”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was birth, and Cicero mentions a goddess Natio, worshipped at Ardea, who watched over childbirth.^[2][5] From birth it came to mean a people or race.^[2][1]

Plautus used it of a class of people, as his fishermen, “a hungry race of men”, and Cicero of “the whole tribe of candidates”.^[2] It meant a breed of animals, nationality, and the place of origin of natural products, as Pliny's honey and wax.^[2][6] In Medieval Latin it also meant the heathen.^[4] English nation came from it about 1300.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of peoples and classes of men.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions the goddess Natio.^[2][5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the origin of honey.^[2][4]
• c. 1300 – English nation is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Birth, Natio: the goddess of birth.^[2][1]
2. A people, race, nation.^[2][1]
3. A class, set (of people).^[2][1]
4. A breed (of animals); nationality.^[2][6]
5. The place of origin (of products).^[2]
6. (Medieval Latin) The heathen.^[4]

Word family

• nātiōnālis

Related words

• nāscor
• English nation

Usage notes

Döderlein groups gens and natio, a people by descent, against populus and civitas, a people as a political body.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper