nascer

Forms

nascer (first-person singular present nasço, first-person singular preterite nasci, past participle nascido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote nacer and naçer, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria already have nascia beside naceu.^[2][3][4] The spelling with ⟨sc⟩ became the usual one in Portuguese from the 16th century.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) and Folqman (1755) still head the word nacer and refer nascer to it.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin *nascere (“to be born”), the Vulgar Latin active infinitive that replaced the infinitive of the classical deponent verb.^{[4][7][8][9][10]} It was written Old Galician-Portuguese nacer in the oldest texts;^[1][8][2] Nascentes calls the modern spelling a remade form.^[1][8][2]

The same Latin verb is Galician nacer, Spanish nacer, Catalan néixer, Occitan nàisser, French naître, Italian nascere and Romanian naște.^[11][1] In Spanish it is recorded from the second half of the 10th century.^[12]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *gnāskōr, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to give birth”) with the inchoative suffix *-sḱéti.^[13] The initial /gn-/ was simplified to /n-/, but Old Latin still has gnātus beside nātus (“born”).^[13][14] The verb is related to gignō (“to beget”), and is cognate with Ancient Greek γεννάω (gennáō, “to beget”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century, from the slips of the medieval Portuguese index.^[4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it of birth, naceu Jesu-Cristo dela “Jesus Christ was born of her”, and of growth, in the miracle in which the Virgin makes a flower grow (fez nacer hũa fror) in a cleric's mouth.^[2] A cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X has a woman lament Naci en grave dia, / e nunca casarei “I was born on an ill-fated day, and I shall never marry”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Already in the medieval prose the verb is used of the sun rising (donde naçe o ssol “where the sun rises”), of a spring rising at the foot of a tower, and of a quarrel arising.^[3] Morais (1813) lists the same range: to come out of the mother's womb, to sprout from the ground, to rise (of a spring or a river), to originate (as artes nascem da experiência), and to rise on the horizon (of the sun).^[15]

Modern dictionaries add the senses “to be descended from”, “to be destined for” (nascer para) and, with a predicative, “to be born with a gift” (nasceu poeta).^[4][10][16] The infinitive is used as a noun, o nascer do Sol “sunrise”.^[4][1] The verb passed into the creoles, as nase in Kabuverdianu and Papiamentu and nacê in Macanese, and into Nheengatu as naseri.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have nacer and naceu, and once nascia.^[2][4]
• 14th century – nasçera in Houaiss's historical forms.^[4]
• c. 1510 – nascer in the Vida de Santo Agostinho (witness 1480–1510).^[17]
• 1537 – a private letter writes nacẽ.^[18]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro heads the word Nascer and translates it nascor and orior.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau refers nascer to nacer.^[5]
• 1813 – Morais lists the senses “to be born”, “to sprout”, “to rise” and “to originate”.^[15]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the verb from Latin nascor.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be born, to come into the world: A minha sobrinha nasceu em maio.^[4][10][21]
2. (of a plant) To sprout, to come up from the ground: O feijão já nasceu na horta.^[4][10][21]
3. (of the sun or a star) To rise: Ainda não nasceu o dia.^[4][21][1]
4. (of a river or spring) To have its source: Este rio nasce nas montanhas do norte.^[9][22]
5. To come into being, to arise; to originate in or stem from: A ideia nasceu de uma conversa entre amigos.^[4][10][16]
6. To be descended from: Nasceu de uma família de pescadores.^[4][16]
7. (with para) To be destined or cut out for: Ele não nasceu para mandar.^[4][16]
8. (with a predicative) To be born with a quality or gift: Ela nasceu cantora.^[4][9]

Noun

1. The act of being born or of rising: o nascer do Sol “sunrise”.^[4][9]

Word family

• nascença
• nascente
• nascido
• nascimento
• renascer

Related words

• nado
• natimorto
• nato
• inato
• natal
• nação
• natureza
• Latin nāscor
• Galician nacer

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include nascer de novo “to have a narrow escape”, nascer ontem “to be young and inexperienced” (não ter nascido ontem “to know what is going on”), and in Brazil nascer empelicado “to be born lucky”.^[4][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. nacer
3. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. naçer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nascer
5. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
6. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nascer
8. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nascer
9. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. nascer
10. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. nascer
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
13. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. nascor
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 334
16. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. nascer
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. nascer
18. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. nascer
19. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
20. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 391
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. nascer
22. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. nascer
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6434