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Webster 1913 Edition


Nativity

Na-tiv′i-ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Nativies
(#)
.
[F.
nativité
, L.
nativitas
. See
Native
, and cf.
Naïveté
.]
1.
The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc.
Chaucer.
I have served him from the hour of my
nativity
.
Shakespeare
Thou hast left . . . the land of thy
nativity
.
Ruth ii. 11.
These in their dark
nativity
the deep
Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame.
Milton.
2.
(Fine Arts)
(capitalized)
A picture representing or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born.
3.
(Astrol.)
A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one’s birth, supposed to indicate one's future destinies; a horoscope.
The Nativity
,
the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day.
To cast one's nativity
or
To calculate one's nativity
(Astrol.)
,
to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

Webster 1828 Edition


Nativity

NATIVITY

,
Noun.
1.
Birth; the coming into life or the world. The feast of Christmas is observed in memory of Christs nativity.
2.
Time, place and manner of birth; as, to calculate ones nativity.
3.
State or place of being produced.
These, in their dark nativity, the deep Shall yield us pregnant with infernal flame.

Definition 2024


Nativity

Nativity

See also: nativity

English

Proper noun

Nativity

  1. (Christianity) The birth of Jesus as described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
  2. (by extension) Christmas.

Translations

nativity

nativity

See also: Nativity

English

Noun

nativity (plural nativities)

  1. (now dated) Someone's birth; the place, time and circumstances of a birth. [from 14th c.]
  2. (also with capital initial) The birth of Jesus. [from 14th c.]
  3. (Christianity) The festival celebrating the birth of Jesus; Christmas Day. [from 12th c.]
  4. (astrology) Someone's birth considered as a means of astrology; a horoscope associated with a person's birth. [from 14th c.]
    • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 313:
      Accordingly […] he was careful, as befitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, to note the exact nativity of his subjects whenever it could be discovered; in this way he hoped to make possible a scientific comparison of the course of human life with the astrological circumstances of its inception, and ths to arrive at a more exact astrology.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also