nativus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [naːˈtiː.wʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [naˈtiː.vus]^[1]

Forms

nātīvus (feminine nātīva, neuter nātīvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin nātus (“born”) + -īvus, from the participle of nāscor “to be born”.^[2][1][3] Nātus continues Proto-Italic *gnātos, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius uses it of the world as having been born or created, and of the soul.^[4][5] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It first meant having a birth or origin, created, as Cicero's report of Anaximander's view that the gods were born.^[2][4] It meant occurring in nature as opposed to artificial, as Varro's natural vine props, a city's natural defences in Cicero, and a forest serving as a natural wall in Caesar.^[2][5] It also meant native to a place as opposed to brought in, and acquired by birth, inborn, as Nepos' innate charm.^[2][4] Cicero calls primitive words nativa verba, and the grammarians use it of original forms.^[7][2]

In medieval Latin it meant a native of a place, and as a noun a serf born into bondage, a neif.^[8][1] Its descendants include French naïf and Italian nativo.^[1] English native is recorded in the late 14th century as “natural, inborn”, and as a noun in the mid-15th century for a person born a serf, naive came from French in the 1650s.^[9]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the created world.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of gods that were born and of primitive words.^[2][7][6]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of innate charm.^[4][6]
• late 14th century – English native is recorded.^[9]
• 1650s – English naive is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a birth or origin, created.^[2][1]
2. natural, not artificial.^[2][1]
3. native, local.^[2]
4. Inborn, innate.^[2][1]
5. (grammar) Original, primitive.^[2][1]
6. (Medieval Latin) Born a serf, (as noun) a neif, serf.^[8][1]

Word family

• nātīvitās
• nātīvitus

Related words

• nāscēns
• nāscor
• nātālīcius
• nātālis
• natura
• English native
• English naive

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com