Where does “nations” come from?
Nations comes from Old French nacion, from Latin nationem, derived from the Latin verb stem -tio and Latin damnum, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵénh₁tis meaning birth or kinship group.
nations (English): plural of nation
Ancestry of “nations”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | nation | A historically constituted, stable community of... |
| 2 | Middle English | nacioun | nation, country; people, race, tribe; People with... |
| 3 | Old French | nacion | birth; nation |
| 4 | Latin | nātiō | — |
| 5 | Latin | nātus | — |
| 6 | Latin | gnātus | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | gnātos | — |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵn̥h₁tós | begotten, produced |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵenh₁- | to produce, to beget, to give birth |