Other forms: natures
Nature is everything in the world not made by people. Love of nature, back to nature, nature reserve.
The line between natural and made is blurrier than the word suggests — almost no British landscape is untouched — but the idea does real work in law and in feeling. Nature also means the essential character of a thing or person: the nature of the problem, good-natured, second nature. Note nature versus nurture, which is the old argument about what makes people what they are; and human nature.
1nounnatureEverything in the world not made by people.
“We went for a walk to enjoy nature and listen to the birds.”
2nounessentialThe essential character of a thing or person.
“It's in her nature to help people.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
nature is the natural world, or essential character.
Latin natura comes from nasci, to be born, so nature is what a thing is born as. Native, nation, innate and pregnant come from the same birth.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Middle English
nature
English, today
nature
Built from
From Middle English nature. From Middle English nature, natur, from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra (“birth, origin, natural constitution or quality”), future participle from perfect passive participle natus (“born”), from deponent verb nasci (“to be born, originate”) + future participle suffix -urus. Displaced native erd from eard (compare Art); and kynde from ġecynd. More at kind. Also displaced native Old English hād (“nature, manner”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA