naitre — TO BE BORN


[NAY-trr] (v.) Calling someone a San Francisco liberal may be considered insulting in politics, but locals are very proud if they can call themselves true San Francisco natives. But to do that, you have to actually been born within its 47 square miles. The world native comes from the French natif which means born in. Think of the Bible's nativity scene. The verb associated with the noun is naitre, which means to be born. Actually, English speakers already use a conjugated—accented even—form of naitre for formal occasions. That's right. When you write Michelle Obama née Robinson to indicate her maiden name fancily, you're using the French for was born. The word nation also comes from naitre. So baseball's National League means "League of the place from which they were born" which, really, is much less specific then the good 'ol American League.