nature

Etymology

From Middle English nature, natur, from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra (“birth, origin, natural constitution or quality”), future participle from perfect passive participle (g)natus (“born”), from deponent verb (g)nasci (“to be born, originate”) + future participle suffix -urus. Displaced native Old English ġecynd. More at kind.

noun

1. (uncountable, often capitalized) The way things are, the totality of all things in the physical universe and their order, especially the physical world in contrast to spiritual realms and flora and fauna as distinct from human conventions, art, and technology.
   In the works of nature we find, in many instances, beauty and sublimity involved among circumstances, which are either indifferent, or which obstruct the general effect: and it is only by a train of experiments, that we can separate those circumstances from the rest... Accordingly, the inexperienced artist, when he copies nature, will copy her servilely... and the beauties of his performances will be encumbered with a number of superfluous or disagreeable concomitants. Experience and observation alone can enable him to make this determination: to exhibit the principles of beauty pure and unadulterated, and to form a creation of his own, more faultless, than ever fell under the observation of his senses. 1808, Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, pages 315–6
   Most persons in striving after effect lose the likeness when they should go together to produce a good effect you must copy Nature: leave Nature for an imaginary effect & you lose all. Nature as Nature cannot be exceeded, and as your object it [is] to copy Nature twere the hight of folly to look at any thing else to produce that copy. 1816, Matthew Harris Jouett, Notes... on Painting with Gilbert Stuart Esqr
   Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects. 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying
   Nature’s logic was too horrid for him to care for. 1895, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, page 15
   ...they will shout at you, it is no use protesting: it is a case of twice two makes four! Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions. A wall, you see, is a wall... Merciful Heavens! but what do I care for the laws of nature and arithmetic, when, for some reason I dislike those laws and the fact that twice two makes four? Of course I cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it if I really have not the strength to knock it down, but I am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and I have not the strength. 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Notes from Underground”, in Constance Garnett, transl., White Nights and Other Stories, pages 58–9
   Man was entirely at the mercy of nature—a mere scavenger who eked out a miserable existence as a food-gatherer and an eater of shell-fish. 1928, Christopher Dawson, The Age of the Gods, page 49
   Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature. Moreland: Pitiful. Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is. 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06
   As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds. 2012 Jan., Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 31
   Gómez Ortega... explicitly ordered them to study only fresh plants, in situ, to draw every part, and 'to copy nature exactly without presuming to correct it or decorate it as some draughtsmen are used to doing, adding colours and ornaments drawn from their imagination'. 2015, Alisa Luxenberg, “Printing Plants: The Technology of Nature Printing in Eighteenth-Century Spain”, in Art, Technology, and Nature, page 140
   As Hurricane Irma prepares to strike, it's worth remembering that Mother Nature never intended us to live here. 2017 Sept. 8, Michael Grunwald, "A Requiem for Florida" in Politico Magazine
   The tao of Lao Tzu was a cosmic tao, inner and unwritten, a tao of Nature, while the tao of Confucius was moral and written. 2021, Olof G. Lidin, From Taoism to Einstein, page 196
   Nature doesn't lie.
   The laws of nature are written in the language of mathematics.
   Tectonic activity is part of nature, so there's no way to stop earthquakes.
2. The particular way someone or something is, especially
   1. The essential or innate characteristics of a person or thing which will always tend to manifest, especially in contrast to specific contexts, reason, religious duty, upbringing, and personal pretense or effort.
      Nature passes norture. 1641, David Fergusson, Scottish proverbs, D4
      Men may change their Climate, but they cannot their Nature. 1709, Robert Steele, Tatler, number 93
      Domestic animals of a base nature and not fit for food, are not the subjects of theft. This rule includes dogs and cats. 1834, Criminal Law Commission, First Report... on Criminal Law, page 21
      His own better nature which... was magnanimous and heroic, moved and won him. 1848, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Harold, volume III, page 375
      The Monophysites held that the two Natures were so united, that although the 'One Christ' was partly Human and partly Divine, His two Natures became by their union only one Nature. 1874, John Henry Blunt, Dictionary of Sects..., page 332
      Mark hardly knew whether to believe this or not. He already began to suspect that Roswell was something of a humbug, and though it was not in his nature to form a causeless dislike, he certainly did not feel disposed to like Roswell. 1869, Horatio Alger Jr., Mark the Match Boy, Ch. 16
      The phrase ‘nature and nurture’ is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed. 1874, Francis Galton, English Men of Science, page 12
      Being by nature of a cheerful disposition, the symptom did not surprise his servant, late private of the same famous regiment, who was laying breakfast in an adjoining room. 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond
      The contrast between nature and grace, between human appetites and interests and religion, is not absolute, but relative. 1926, Richard Henry Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, page 20
      Couples bitching at each other is human nature. 1961, Barry Crump, Hang on a Minute Mate, page 147
      Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature's nature. Moreland: Pitiful. Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is. 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06
      Unlike the static conception of nature or nurture, epigenic research demonstrates how genes and environments continuously interact to produce characteristics throughout a lifetime. 2015 July 10, Evan Nesterak, "The End of Nature versus Nurture" in The Psych Report
      It's not in my nature to steal.
      You can't help feeling that way. It's human nature.
      Power corrupts. That's just the nature of the beast.
   2. The distinguishing characteristic of a person or thing, understood as its general class, sort, type, etc.
      For the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature. 1626 July 12, Charles I, Instructions
      And yet, though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature. 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 56
      The extent and nature of Bach's influence on Haydn is now due for further reassessment. 1988 April, Music and Letters, Vol. 69, p. 463
      What was the nature of your relationship with the deceased?
      The best medium might be petroleum, liquified gas, or something of that nature.
   3. (UK military, obsolete) Synonym of caliber: the class of a gun.
      ...One Hundred of each Nature of Case-Shot... 1828, James Morton Spearman, The British Gunner, page 130
      B.L. cartridges have lubricators choked inside the cartridges of 40-pr. and lower natures. 1879, War Office, Manual of Siege and Garrison Artillery Exercises, page 37
3. The vital functions or strength of someone or something, especially (now dialect) as requiring nourishment or careful maintenance or (medicine) as a force of regeneration without special treatment.
   Any such corrasiue, sharpe or eager medicine... as the said H. shal think his nature is vnable to suffer... 1592, William West, Symbolaeography, Pt. I, §102b
   I returned hungry... and had only snow to supply the calls of nature. 1807, Zebulon Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Source of the Mississippi..., volume II, page 182
   The timber... is found to be brittle and effete; or, to use the workman's expression, 'its nature is gone'. 1820, Thomas Tredgold, Elementary Principles of Carpentry, page 165
   Nature is unable to repair the extensive injury. 1826 April 1, Lancet, p. 32
   The prison allowance will not support nature. 1843, George Henry Borrow, The Bible in Spain, volume III, page 47
   My iron’s just comin’ to natur’. 1895, T. Pinnock, Tom Brown's Black Country Annual...
   Hungry-groond, ground credited to be so much enchanted that a person passing over it would faint if they did not use something to support nature. 1984, William N. Herbert, Sterts & Stobies, page 30
4. A requirement or powerful impulse of the body's physical form, especially
   1. The need to urinate and defecate.
      He withdrew from the Company to ease Nature. 1701, William Wotton, The History of Rome, page 328
      The women tell you to stop because they's feeling the call of nature. If you don't stop they pee in your lorry. 1965, Wole Soyinka, Road, page 26
      I hear the call of nature.
   2. (now chiefly African-American Vernacular) Sexual desire.
      She marvelled "What he saw in such a baby "As that prim, silent, cold Aurora Raby?" ...Why Adeline had this slight prejudice ...For me appears a question far too nice, Since Adeline was liberal by Nature; But Nature’s Nature, and has more caprices Than I have time, or will to take to pieces... 1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Draft, Canto XV, St. xlix & lii
      He had placed a spell on her by means of a cunjer bag... Its effect was to rob her of connubial allure—in her words, ‘it stole her nature’. 1941, William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, page 305
      Every time I felt nature for her, she would rub something on her hands and face to take away my nature. 1974 July 25, Daily Telegraph, page 3
      Freamon: She too young for you, boy... They get younger, William. Skinnier too. You don't... 's just the nature of things. Age is age, fat is fat, nature’s nature. Moreland: Pitiful. Freamon: Pitiless. Nature don't care. Nature just is. 2006 Oct. 1, Dennis Lehane, "Refugees", The Wire, 00:34:06
   3. (now chiefly UK regional and African-American Vernacular) Spontaneous love, affection, or reverence, especially between parent and child.
      Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed) The murd'ring son ascend his parent's bed, Thro' violated Nature force his way, And stain the sacred womb where once he lay? 1712, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius's Thebais”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, page 25
      She had no nature, nor indeed any passion but that of money. 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, volume I, page 136
      ...I could bear much. I'd not move nor scream While you wrote the red stripes: But there's no nature in you... 1937, Robinson Jeffers, “Thurso's Landing”, in Selected Poetry, page 312
5. (now rare) A product of the body's physical form, especially semen and vaginal fluids, menstrual fluid, and (obsolete) feces.
   If a man want to break his wife from some man, he steals this dishcloth... an' he ketches her nachure in this dishcloth... c. 1938, spell cited in Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo Conjuration Witchcraft Rootwork, Vol. I, p. 534
6. (now rare) A part of the body's physical form, especially (obsolete) the female genitalia.
   ... offer her the Horse, and... wash her Nature with cold Water ... 1743 May, William Ellis, Modern Husbandman, No. xiv, p. 137

verb

1. (obsolete) To endow with natural qualities.