natal
/ˈneɪtəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A former British colony in modern South Africa, existing from 1843 to 1910.
name
A former province of South Africa, reorganized in 1994 into the modern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
name
A municipality, the state capital of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
Example Sentences
- "Sea turtles return to their natal beaches to nest."
- "The constituents of the nation are a land and a people: the "natal", which is not necessarily innate, and the "popular," which is not necessarily pregiven."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁tós Proto-Italic *gnātos Latin gnātus Latin nātus Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin nātālisbor. Middle English natal English natal From Middle English natal, natale (“native, one’s own; inherited; presiding over birthdays or births”), from Classical Latin nātālis (“natal”), from nātus, perfect active participle of nāscor (“to be born”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-. Doublet of nada, Natal, née, and Noel.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ǵenh₁-, natal,natale, nātālis, Natal#Portuguese
- Suffix: la-cla:natis
Inflected Forms
more natal (comparative)
most natal (superlative)