innateness
|in-nate-ness|
/ɪˈneɪtnəs/
quality of being inborn
Etymology
'innateness' is formed in English by adding the suffix '-ness' to the adjective 'innate'; 'innate' originates from Latin 'innatus', the past participle of 'innascor', where the prefix 'in-' meant 'in' or 'into' (intensifying) and 'natus' meant 'born'.
'innatus' in Latin (meaning 'born in' or 'inborn') passed into English as the adjective 'innate' in the 17th century; the noun 'innateness' was later created by adding the productive nominalizing suffix '-ness' to denote the state or quality.
Initially the Latin root signified 'born in' or 'inborn'; over time this developed into the English adjective 'innate' meaning 'inborn' or 'natural', and the noun 'innateness' now denotes the quality or condition of being innate.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
the quality or state of being innate; inborn or natural character or trait.
Scholars discussed the innateness of certain moral intuitions.
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Noun 2
in psychology and linguistics, the hypothesis or belief that some abilities or knowledge are present at birth rather than learned.
The innateness hypothesis in language acquisition proposes that children have an inherent grammatical capacity.
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Last updated: 2025/11/29 21:32