Meaning and Origin
What does the name Nation mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
User Submitted Origins
User Submitted Meanings
- A user from Pennsylvania, U.S. says the name Nation is of Native American origin and means "Gifted being".
- A user from Texas, U.S. says the name Nation means "Country".
- [Ethnol] A part, or division, of the people of the earth, distinguished from the rest by common descent, language, or institutions; a race; a stock."All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." [Rev. vii. 9.]
- The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own."A nation is the unity of a people." [Coleridge.]"Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation." [F. S. Key.]
- Family; lineage.(Obs)
- One of the divisions of university students in a classification according to nativity, formerly common in Europe.
- [Scotch Universities]
One of the four divisions (named from the parts of Scotland) in which students were classified according to their nativity.
- One of the divisions of university students in a classification according to nativity, formerly common in Europe.
- A great number; a great deal; -- by way of emphasis; as, a nation of herbs.synonyms: people; race. See People.
Etymology: F. nation, L. natio nation, race, orig., a being born, fr. natus, p. p. of nasci, to be born, for gnatus gnasci, from the same root as E. kin. √44. See Kin kindred, and cf. Cognate Natal Native
- The people who live in a nation or country ("a statement that sums up the nation's mood" and "the news was announced to the nation")
- A politically organized body of people under a single government ("African nations" and "students who had come to the nation's capitol")
- A federation of tribes (especially Native American tribes) ("the Shawnee nation")
- United States prohibitionist who raided saloons and destroyed bottles of liquor with a hatchet (1846-1911)
From Middle English nacion, nacioun, borrowing from Old French nation, nacion, nasion (“nation”), from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō, (g)nātiō (“nation, race, birth”) from (g)natus, past participle stem of (g)nasci (“to be born”). Displaced native Middle English theode, thede (“nation”) (from Old English þēod), Middle English burthe (“birth, nation, race, nature”), Middle English leod, leode, lede (“people, race”) (from Old English lēod). Compare Saterland Frisian Nation (“nation”), West Frisian naasje (“nation”), Dutch natie (“nation”), Middle Low German nacie (“nation”), German Nation (“nation”), Danish nation (“nation”), Swedish nation (“nation”).
- A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
- The Roma are a without a country.
- The Kurdish people constitute a in the Middle East
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- (international law) A sovereign state.
- Though legally single , many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
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- (chiefly historical) An association of students based on its members' birthplace or ethnicity. syn. transl.
- Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.
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- (obsolete) A great number; a great deal.
Probably short for damnation.
- (rare) Damnation.
nation was also found in the following language(s): French, Middle French, and Swedish