nativity

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: Na=tiv=i=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

nativity, n. [F. nativité, L. nativitas. See Native, and cf. NaïvetÉ.].

•  The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "I have served him from the hour of my nativity."  [1913 Webster]

  "Thou hast left . . . the land of thy nativity."  [1913 Webster]

  "These in their dark nativity the deep
  Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame."  [1913 Webster]
•  A picture representing or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born.  [1913 Webster]
•  A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate one's future destinies; a horoscope.  [1913 Webster]

The Nativity, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day. -- To cast one's nativity or To calculate one's nativity (Astrol.), to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

nativity, n. (pl. -ies)
1 (esp. the Nativity) a the birth of Christ. b the festival of Christ's birth; Christmas.
2 a picture of the Nativity.
3 birth.
4 the horoscope at a person's birth.
5 a the birth of the Virgin Mary or St John the Baptist. b the festival of the nativity of the Virgin (8 Sept.) or St John (24 June).

Idiom

nativity play a play usu. performed by children at Christmas dealing with the birth of Christ.

Etymology

ME f. OF nativit{eacute} f. LL nativitas -tatis f. L (as NATIVE)

THESAURUS

nativity

aboriginality, accouchement, aspect, astrodiagnosis, astrology, astromancy, autochthonousness, babyhood, beginnings, birth, birth throes, birthing, blessed event, childbearing, childbed, childbirth, childhood, confinement, cradle, delivery, freshman year, genesis, genethliac astrology, genethliacism, genethliacs, genethlialogy, giving birth, hatching, having a baby, horoscope, horoscopy, house, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incunabula, indigenousness, infancy, labor, mansion, multiparity, mundane astrology, mundane house, nascence, nascency, nationality, native-bornness, nativeness, nativism, natural astrology, origin, origination, parturition, planetary house, pregnancy, stargazing, the Nativity, the stork, travail, youth, zodiac

ROGET THESAURUS

nativity

Beginning

N beginning, commencement, opening, outset, incipience, inception, inchoation, introduction, alpha, initial, inauguration, debut, le premier pas, embarcation, rising of the curtain, maiden speech, outbreak, onset, brunt, initiative, move, first move, narrow end of the wedge, thin end of the wedge, fresh start, new departure, origin, source, rise, bud, germ, egg, rudiment, genesis, primogenesis, birth, nativity, cradle, infancy, start, inception, creation, starting point, dawn, evolution, title-page, head, heading, van, caption, fatihah, entrance, entry, inlet, orifice, mouth, chops, lips, porch, portal, portico, propylon, door, gate, gateway, postern, wicket, threshold, vestibule, propylaeum, skirts, border, first stage, first blush, first glance, first impression, first sight, rudiments, elements, outlines, grammar, alphabet, ABC, beginning, initial, initiatory, initiative, inceptive, introductory, incipient, proemial, inaugural, inchoate, inchoative, embryonic, rudimental, primogenial, primeval, primitive, primordial, aboriginal, natal, nascent, first, foremost, leading, maiden, begun, just begun, at the beginning, in the beginning first, in the first place, imprimis, first and foremost, in limine, in the bud, in embryo, in its infancy, from the beginning, from its birth, ab initio, ab ovo, ab incunabilis, ab origine, let's get going!, let's get this show on the road!, up and at 'em!, aller Anfang ist schwer, dimidium facti qui coepit habet, omnium rerum principia parva sunt.

Prediction

N prediction, announcement, program, programme, premonition, prognosis, prophecy, vaticination, mantology, prognostication, premonstration, augury, auguration, ariolation, hariolation, foreboding, aboding, bodement, abodement, omniation, omniousness, auspices, forecast, omen, horoscope, nativity, sooth, soothsaying, fortune telling, crystal gazing, divination, necromancy, astrology, horoscopy, judicial astrology, adytum prefiguration, prefigurement, prototype, type, oracle, predicting, predictive, prophetic, fatidic, fatidical, vaticinal, oracular, fatiloquent, haruspical, Sibylline, weatherwise, ominous, portentous, augurous, augurial, augural, auspicial, auspicious, prescious, monitory, extispicious, premonitory, significant of, pregnant with, bit with the fate of, coming events cast their shadows before, dicamus bona verba, there buds the promise of celestial worth, by oracles, Theomancy, by the Bible, Bibliomancy, by ghosts, Psychomancy, by crystal gazing, Crystallomancy, by shadows or manes, Sciomancy, by appearances in the air, Aeromancy, Chaomancy, by the stars at birth, Genethliacs, by meteors, Meteoromancy, by winds, Austromancy, by sacrificial appearances, Aruspicy, Haruspicy, Hieromancy, Hieroscopy, by the entrails of animals sacrificed, Extispicy, Hieromancy, by the entrails of a human sacrifice, Anthropomancy, by the entrails of fishes, Ichthyomancy, by sacrificial fire, Pyromancy, by red-hot iron, Sideromancy, by smoke from the altar, Capnomancy, by mice, Myomancy, by birds, Orniscopy, Ornithomancy, by a cock picking up grains, Alectryomancy, Alectromancy, by fishes, Ophiomancy, by herbs, Botanomancy, by water, Hydromancy, by fountains, Pegomancy, by a wand, Rhabdomancy, by dough of cakes, Crithomancy, by meal, Aleuromancy, Alphitomancy, by salt, Halomancy, by dice, Cleromancy, by arrows, Belomancy, by a balanced hatchet, Axinomancy, by a balanced sieve, Coscinomancy, by a suspended ring, Dactyliomancy, by dots made at random on paper, Geomancy, by precious stones, Lithomancy, by pebbles, Pessomancy, by pebbles drawn from a heap, Psephomancy, by mirrors, Catoptromancy, by writings in ashes, Tephramancy, by dreams, Oneiromancy, by the hand, Palmistry, Chiromancy, by nails reflecting the sun's rays, Onychomancy, by finger rings, Dactylomancy, by numbers, Arithmancy, by drawing lots, Sortilege, by passages in books, Stichomancy, by the letters forming the name of the person, Onomancy, Nomancy, by the features, Anthroposcopy, by the mode of laughing, Geloscopy, by ventriloquism, Gastromancy, by walking in a circle, Gyromancy, by dropping melted wax into water, Ceromancy, by currents, Bletonism, by the color and peculiarities of wine, Oenomancy.