nation

Etymology 1

From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced native Old English þēod.

noun

1. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
   The Roma are a nation without a country.
2. (international law) A sovereign state.
   Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […] perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment. 2013-06-07, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
3. (chiefly historical) An association of students based on its members' birthplace or ethnicity.
   Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.
4. (obsolete) A great number; a great deal.
   […]and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c.[…] 1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, new edition, volume V, Altenburgh: G. E. Richter, published 1772, page 57
5. In North America, an Indigenous people and their federally recognized territory.
   The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States and the second-largest Indian reservation in area.

Etymology 2

Probably short for damnation.

noun

1. (rare) Damnation.

adv

1. (rare, dialectal) Extremely, very.