[syn: Virgin Birth, Nativity]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Nativity \Na*tiv"i*ty\, n.; pl. Nativies. [F. nativit['e], L.
nativitas. See Native, and cf. Na["i]vet['e].]
1. 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.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Thou hast left . . . the land of thy nativity.
--Ruth ii. 11.
[1913 Webster]
These in their dark nativity the deep
Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Fine Arts) (capitalized) 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]
3. (Astrol.) 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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
nativity
n 1: the event of being born; "they celebrated the birth of
their first child" [syn: birth, nativity, nascency,
nascence] [ant: death, decease, expiry]
2: the theological doctrine that Jesus Christ had no human
father; Christians believe that Jesus's birth fulfilled Old
Testament prophecies and was attended by miracles; the
Nativity is celebrated at Christmas [syn: Virgin Birth,
Nativity]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
62 Moby Thesaurus words for "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