The wird naitur is derived frae the Laitin wird natura, or ""essential qualities, innate disposeetion"", an in auncient times, leeterally meant ""birth"". Natura is a Laitin translation o the Greek wird physis (φύσις), which oreeginally relatit tae the intrinsic chairacteristics that plants, ainimals, an ither featurs o the warld develop o thair awn accord. The concept o naitur as a whole, the pheesical universe, is ane o several expansions o the oreeginal notion; it began wi certain core applications o the wird φύσις bi pre-Socratic filosofers, an haes steadily gained iver syne. This uisage continued during the advent o modren scienteefic method in the last several centuries.