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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
Chicago Tribune, 8 May 2026
The administration has also settled three deals with developers of more nascent offshore projects, paying back lease fees to the tune of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars for the projects to not be built.
—Ella Nilsen, CNN Money, 7 May 2026
But the nascent channel fended off an attempt by ABC to create a competitor, and critics could see the value of an ever-present news channel, even if quality was a little thin at times.
—Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2026
But its nascent comeback can be tied to bigger footwear trends.
—Diana Tsui, Footwear News, 4 May 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 12 May. 2026.
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