nature

English Online Dictionary. What means nature‎? What does nature mean?

English

Alternative forms

• natuer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English nature, natur, from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra (“birth, origin, natural constitution or quality”), future participle from perfect passive participle (g)natus (“born”), from deponent verb (g)nasci (“to be born, originate”) + future participle suffix -urus.

Displaced native Middle English erd (“character, nature, disposition”) from Old English eard (compare German Art (“nature, character, kind, type”)); and Middle English kinde, ikinde (“character, disposition, nature”) from Old English ġecynd. More at kind.

Pronunciation

• enPR: nā′-chə(r) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪ̯.tʃə(ɹ)/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪ̯.tʃə/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪ̯.t͡ʃəɹ/
  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛː.tʃɐ/
  • (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈnæɪ̯.tʃə/, [ˈnæe̯tʃɐ], [ˈnae̯tʃɐ]
  • Rhymes: -eɪtʃə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: na‧ture

Noun

nature (countable and uncountable, plural natures)

1. (uncountable, often capitalized) The way things are, the totality of all things in the physical universe and their order, especially the physical world in contrast to spiritual realms and flora and fauna as distinct from human conventions, art, and technology.
   • 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06:

     Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature.
     Moreland: Pitiful.
     Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.

   • 2017 Sept. 8, Michael Grunwald, "A Requiem for Florida" in Politico Magazine:

     As Hurricane Irma prepares to strike, it's worth remembering that Mother Nature never intended us to live here.

2. The particular way someone or something is, especially
   1. The essential or innate characteristics of a person or thing which will always tend to manifest, especially in contrast to specific contexts, reason, religious duty, upbringing, and personal pretense or effort.
      • 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06:

        Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature's nature.
        Moreland: Pitiful.
        Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.

      • 2015 July 10, Evan Nesterak, "The End of Nature versus Nurture" in The Psych Report:

        Unlike the static conception of nature or nurture, epigenic research demonstrates how genes and environments continuously interact to produce characteristics throughout a lifetime.

   2. The distinguishing characteristic of a person or thing, understood as its general class, sort, type, etc.
      • 1626 July 12, Charles I, Instructions:

        For the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature.

      • 1988 April, Music and Letters, Vol. 69, p. 463:

        The extent and nature of Bach's influence on Haydn is now due for further reassessment.

   3. (UK military, obsolete) Synonym of caliber: the class of a gun.
3. The vital functions or strength of someone or something, especially (now dialect) as requiring nourishment or careful maintenance or (medicine) as a force of regeneration without special treatment.
   • 1826 April 1, Lancet, p. 32:

     Nature is unable to repair the extensive injury.
4. A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially
   1. The need to urinate and defecate.

   2. (now chiefly African-American Vernacular) Sexual desire.
      • 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06:

        Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature.
        Moreland: Pitiful.
        Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is.

   3. (now chiefly UK regional and African-American Vernacular) Spontaneous love, affection, or reverence, especially between parent and child.
5. (now rare) A product of the body's physical form, especially semen and vaginal fluids, menstrual fluid, and (obsolete) feces.
   • c. 1938, spell cited in Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo Conjuration Witchcraft Rootwork, Vol. I, p. 534:

     If a man want to break his wife from some man, he steals this dishcloth... an' he ketches her nachure in this dishcloth...

6. (now rare) A part of the body's physical form, especially (obsolete) the female genitalia.
   • 1743 May, William Ellis, Modern Husbandman, No. xiv, p. 137:

     ... offer her the Horse, and... wash her Nature with cold Water ...

Usage notes

In its primary sense as the material world, its inhabitants, and their order, nature is frequently personified in English conversation and literature, primarily as a cold and indifferent entity or as a wise and loving nurturer (see Mother Nature). In its sense as the essential characteristics of humanity, man's present nature is usually taken in Christian thought as debased by original sin or inherent frailty but amenable to purification through grace; English consideration of human nature frequently continues to maintain a similar focus on resigned acceptance of its failings and distinctions between better/higher and worse/lower natures.

Synonyms

• (innate characteristics): See Thesaurus:essence

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

nature (third-person singular simple present natures, present participle naturing, simple past and past participle natured)

1. (obsolete) To endow with natural qualities.

Further reading

• “nature, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “nature”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• nature in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "nature" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 219.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “nature”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “nature”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Nauert, unrate, tea-urn, natuer, earnut, tea urn

Esperanto

Pronunciation

Adverb

nature

1. naturally

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French nature, Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /na.tyʁ/

Noun

nature f (plural natures)

1. nature
2. (grammar) lexical category

Derived terms

Adjective

nature (plural natures)

1. plain, unseasoned

2. condomless, bareback, raw dog, natural (see Thesaurus:condomless)

Further reading

• “nature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

nature f

1. plural of natura

Adjective

nature (invariable)

1. natural

Anagrams

• Arunte, neutra, rutena, untare, unterà

Middle Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

Noun

nature f

1. nature, force of nature
2. laws of nature, natural order
3. nature, innate characteristics
4. kind, sort
5. origin
6. sexual fertility, sex drive

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: natuur
• Limburgish: netuur, netuuer

Further reading

• “nature”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “nature”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN

Middle English

Alternative forms

• natur, natour, nateure, nater

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /naːˈtiu̯r/

Noun

nature (plural natures)

1. the Universe, existence, creation
2. nature, the natural world
3. natural abilities
4. natural inevitability, nature (as opposed to nurture)
5. natural morals, natural law
6. natural needs or requirements
7. nature, state, condition
8. species, kind, type
9. Nature (allegory)
10. bodily fluids

Related terms

• natural

Descendants

• English: nature
• Scots: natur, naitur, naeter, nature
• Yola: naatur
• → Welsh: natur

References

• “nātūr(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

Middle French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

Noun

nature f (plural natures)

1. nature

Descendants

• French: nature

Old French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin nātūra.

Noun

nature oblique singular, f (oblique plural natures, nominative singular nature, nominative plural natures)

1. nature (natural world; nonhuman world)
2. nature (character; qualities)

Descendants

• Middle French: nature
  • French: nature
• → Middle Dutch: nature (see there for further descendants)
• → Middle English: nature (see there for further descendants)
  • English: nature

Spanish

Verb

nature

1. inflection of naturar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative