Etymologically
Log in

nativus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:11. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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