Word: nativity Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English nativite, from Anglo-Norman nativite, Middle French nativite, and their source, Latin nātīvitās (“birth”). By surface analysis, native + -ity. See also naïveté. Pronunciation: /nəˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/, /neɪˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/, /neːˈʈɪ.ʋɪ.ʈiː/, /ˈneː.ʈɪ.ʋɪ.ʈiː/ 1. Someone's birth; the place, time and circumstances of a birth. Labels: countable, dated, uncountable Example: 1483, William Caxton, Prologue to The Golden Legend, The Holbein Society’s Fac-simile Reprints, London: The Holbein Society, 1878, […] me semeth to be a souerayn wele to Incyte & exhorte men & wymmen to kepe them from slouthe & ydlenesse & to lete to be vnderstonden to suche peple as been not lettered the natyuytees, lyues, the passyons, the myracles and the dethe of the holy saynts […] Example: I have served him from the hour of my nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. 2. Someone's birth considered as a means of astrology; a horoscope associated with a person's birth. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: You ſtarres that raignd at my natiuitie, / whoſe influence hath alotted death and hel, / Now draw vp Fauſtus like a foggy miſt, / Into the intrailes of yon labring cloude, / That when you vomite foorth into the ayre, / My limbes may iſſue from your ſmoaky mouthes, / So that my ſoule may but aſcend to heauen: […] Example: One Mischief always introduces another: These Terrors and Apprehensions of the People, led them into a Thousand weak, foolish, and wicked Things, which, they wanted not a Sort of People really wicked, to encourage them to; and this was running about to Fortune tellers, Cunning men, and Astrologers, to know their Fortune, or, as ’tis vulgarly express’d, to have their Fortunes told them, their Nativities calculated, and the like […] 3. The birth of Jesus. Labels: also, countable, uncountable Example: […] towards the end of dinner […] there is an hymn sung, varied according to the invention of him that composeth it […] but the subject of it is (always) the praises of Adam and Noah and Abraham; whereof the former two peopled the world, and the last was the Father of the Faithful: concluding ever with a thanksgiving for the nativity of our Saviour, in whose birth the births of all are only blessed. Example: Now we nowhere find warrant in Scripture for setting apart the day of Christ’s Nativity from common use to religious holy use. 4. The festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas Day; the festival celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary or the birth of Saint John the Baptist. Labels: also, countable, uncountable Example: Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that the said statute of repeal, and every thing therein contained […] shall be void and of none effect, from, and after the feast of the Nativity of S. John Baptist, next coming. Example: 1624, will of Edmond Heywood of the parish of Christchurch London, cited in Katharine Lee Bates, “A Conjecture as to Thomas Heywood’s Family,” The Journal of English and German Philology, Volume 12, 1913, p. 96, Alsoe I give to the poore of the parish of Christchurch The some of Sixe poundes to be disposed of in this sorte that is to saie, three poundes thereof in Bread on the daie of my funeralle and the other three poundes in bread alsoe on the feast of the Nativitie of our lord then next followinge […] 5. A set of figurines used to create a nativity scene. Labels: also, countable, uncountable Example: He would think of us when he was abroad and in all sorts of places where a daddy might reasonably forget his little boys; he brought us back delightful flat tin soldiers marching, cooking, camping, in oval wood boxes from Paris, and entertaining earthenware Nativities with kings, shepherds, and irrelevant crowds complete, from Italy. 6. Origin; founding. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: 1754, David Hume, Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, London: A. Millar, 3rd edition, Volume 4, Discourse 11, “Of the Protestant Succession,” p. 247, […] ’tis justly to be apprehended, that persecutions will put a speedy period to the Protestant religion in the place of its nativity. Example: 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Swiss Notes, 4. Stimulation of the Alps” in Essays and Criticisms, Boston: H.B. Turner, 1903, p. 264, There is a certain wine of France known in England in some gaseous disguise, but when drunk in the land of its nativity still as a pool, clean as river water, and as heady as verse. 7. Place of origin; place to which a species is native. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: For a long time I believed the common yarrow to be introduced, as the country had been settled at least ten years before I saw it, but my belief in that is shaken, as I never sent for flowers by friends, when they went to an unknown region, but they inevitably brought yarrow. I have had it sent from Texas, Utah, Pike’s Peak and Long’s Peak, Colorado, and at last from the Alps and Germany; so its nativity is very uncertain. Example: The specimens of crystals and other hard stones, which were worked both in India and China, the style determining their nativity, are equally choice. 8. The quality of being native or innate. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Much difference of opinion has prevailed with reference to the genuine nativity of this species [Vinca minor] in Britain. Example: The most important fact to note in Berkeley’s position is his argument to exclude the nativity of the visual perception of the third dimension.