natural causesn.
/ˌnatʃ(ə)rəl ˈkɔːzᵻz/, /ˌnatʃ(ə)rl̩ ˈkɔːzᵻz/, U.S. /ˌnætʃər(ə)l ˈkɔzəz/, /ˌnætʃr(ə)l ˈkɔzəz/, /ˌnætʃər(ə)l ˈkɑzəz/, /ˌnætʃr(ə)l ˈkɑzəz/ 1. Nature regarded as a (manifold) source of causation; the regular and predictable causes of a thing. Cf. natural adj. 6a.
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?1555 Image of Idlenesse xii. 55 Wrytten aswell by sundry Phylosophers, that knowe by learnynge and natural causes, as also by other Sagies that wyste by practise and experience.
1634 T. Jackson Knowledg of Christ Jesus 37 All prediction of Contingents to come, or of events not as yet seminally extant in their naturall causes, was from divine inspiration.
1698 J. Keill Exam. Theory Earth (1734) 37 The Land..is raised higher than the Sea..without the help of Natural and Mechanical causes.
1745 J. Wesley Answer to Rev. Church 45 Every thing, which is not strictly accountable for, by the Ordinary Course of Natural Causes.
c1790 T. Reid Wks. I. 76/1 We have no ground to ascribe efficiency to natural causes, or even necessary connection with the effect. But we still call them causes, including nothing under the name but priority and constant conjunction.
1829 J. L. Knapp Jrnl. Naturalist 304 There are natural causes which render these apparent asylums the field of ravenousness and death.
1912 Dict. National Biogr. 1901–11 II. 653/2 He rather cynically assigned Ireland's distresses to natural causes—to a wet climate and the absence of coal.
1981 J. Gardam Hollow Land ix. 144 In Ancient Greece, Harry said, you got executed if anyone heard you say that an eclipse of the sun was due to natural causes.
1995 Jrnl. Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 55 718 There are irresistible natural causes for our belief in external reality.
2. Old age or disease as causes of death, as distinguished from accident, murder, etc. Cf. natural adj. 6c.
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the world > life > death > manner of death > [noun] > natural death
(to die) a natural deatha1522
straw-death1787
natural causes1834
1834 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 324/1 (heading) Death from natural causes.
1834 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 324/2 We now come to consider the natural causes of sudden death.
1889 A. B. Hicks Hints to Med. Men concerning Certificates of Death 6 Deaths which may be due to either natural causes, or to neglect or gross carelessness.
1921 A. Christie Mysterious Affair at Styles xiii. 292 He strenuously, and quite uselessly, upheld the theory of ‘Death from natural causes’.
1984 Guardian (Nexis) 20 Sept. (headline) Natural causes verdict—six deaths during salmonella outbreak in Wakefield.
2000 Police Rev. 4 Feb. 8/1 Many deaths included in the figure are the result of self-harm or natural causes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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