Etymology: < Anglo-Norman nacion, nacioun, naciun, nation, natiun, etc., and Middle French nacion, nation (early 12th cent. in Old French in plural as naciuns denoting gentiles; late 12th cent. in senses ‘birth’, ‘a people united by common language and culture’, and ‘family, lineage’; early 13th cent. in sense ‘descendants’, early 14th cent. in sense ‘innate character’; late 14th cent. in sense ‘the native population of a town’; late 15th cent. denoting a division of the university of Paris; 1505 in the passage translated in quot. 1523¹ at sense 7b in sense ‘native population of a town’; 1668 in French in sense ‘species of animal’; 1765 in sense ‘territorial division of the Maltese Order’) < classical Latin nātiōn- , nātiō birth, race, nation, class of person, in post-classical Latin also (in plural, nationes ) denoting gentiles (Vetus Latina: the Vulgate has gens ), (in singular) the animal kingdom (Vulgate), Irish clan (1336, 1566 in Irish sources), division of university students (mid 13th cent. with reference to the university of Paris, a1350 with reference to the university of Oxford, 15th cent. with reference to Scottish universities) < nāt- , past participial stem of nāscī to be born (see nascent adj.) + -iō -ion suffix¹.Compare Italian nazione (1294), Spanish nación (1444), Portuguese naçao (1691; 14th cent. in forms naçõ, nasçião), and also German Nation (14th cent.).

Etymology: Shortened < damnation n., int., adv., and adj. (compare adjectival and adverbial uses at sense main sense at that entry). Compare tarnation n., adj., and adv., darnation n.With tarnal nation in quot. 1814 at sense A., compare tarnation adj. and discussion at that entry.