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The Origin of Nascent
Nascent descends from the Latin verb nasci, meaning “to be born,” as does many an English word, from nation and nature to innate and renaissance. But rather than describing the birth of literal babies—as in pups, kits, hoglets, et al.—nascent is applied to things (such as careers or technologies) that have recently formed or come into existence, as when scholar Danille K. Taylor-Guthrie wrote of Toni Morrison being “an integral part of a nascent group of black women writers who would alter the course of African American, American, and world literature.”
Examples of nascent in a Sentence
Mike Sager, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1996
It was almost 80 years ago that the Wright brothers from Ohio ventured to Kitty Hawk for the uplift its steady winds offered their nascent passion, airplanes.
—Robert R. Yandle, Popular Photography, March 1993
A few centuries late, when the nascent science of geology was gathering evidence for the earth's enormous antiquity, some advocates of biblical literalism revived this old argument for our entire planet.
—Stephen Jay Gould, Granta 16, Summer 1985
The actress is now focusing on her nascent singing career.
one of the leading figures in the nascent civil-rights movement
Eric Duvall, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Jan. 2026
Imagine how that respect must grow exponentially when going back a few decades further to the still-nascent days of motorsport, when automobiles were little more than powerful engines with frighteningly thin wheels attached.
—Viju Mathew, Robb Report, 12 Jan. 2026
The nascent American state aspired to become a branch of science.
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 11 Jan. 2026
If all goes well, shovels will hit the dirt again this year in Rockford, with a major addition opening up at the nascent permanent casino in 2027, Iafrate said.
—Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 9 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for nascent
Cite this Entry
“Nascent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nascent. Accessed 22 Jan. 2026.
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