Where does “nation” come from?
Nation comes from Old French nacion, from Latin nationem, derived from the Latin suffix -tio attached to damnum, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵenh₁-.
nation (English): A historically constituted, stable community of...
Definitions
- A historically constituted, stable community of...
Ancestry of “nation”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | nacioun | nation, country; people, race, tribe; People with... |
| 2 | Old French | nacion | birth; nation |
| 3 | Latin | nātiō | birth |
| 4 | Latin | nātus | born, arisen, made |
| 5 | Latin | gnātus | — |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | gnātos | born |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵn̥h₁tós | begotten, produced |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵenh₁- | to produce, to beget, to give birth |