nation: [13] Etymologically a nation is a ‘breed’ or ‘stock’. It is one of a wide range of English words that go back ultimately to Latin nāscī ‘be born’, and its immediate source is the derived noun nātiō. This literally meant ‘that which has been born’, a ‘breed’, but was soon used by extension for a ‘species’ or ‘race’, and then by further narrowing down for a ‘race of people, nation’.
The notion of ‘common ancestry’ underlying the term survived into English, but over the centuries has gradually been overtaken by the political concept of an organized territorial unit. The derivative nationality dates from the 17th century. => native
nation (n.)
c. 1300, from Old French nacion "birth, rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland" (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio) "birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe," literally "that which has been born," from natus, past participle of nasci "be born" (Old Latin gnasci; see genus). Political sense has gradually predominated, but earliest English examples inclined toward the racial meaning "large group of people with common ancestry." Older sense preserved in application to North American Indian peoples (1640s). Nation-building first attested 1907 (implied in nation-builder).
双语例句
1. Albania is a small nation state of around 3 million people.
阿尔巴尼亚是一个大约有300万人口的单一民族独立国家。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Young people came from the four corners of the nation.
全国各地的年轻人都来到这里。
来自柯林斯例句
3. How much can the President relax his grip over the nation?
总统可以对国家的控制放松到什么样的程度？
来自柯林斯例句
4. The nation's unemployment rate has been climbing steadily since last June.
自去年6月以来，该国的失业率一直在不断上升。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The crew are of different nation-alities and have no common language.
