nascor

Nascor is a Latin verb meaning “to be born.” It is a deponent verb, which means it is passive in form but active in meaning across its tenses.

As a deponent, nascor uses passive endings in its conjugation. In the present tense, for example, it appears as nascor, nascitur, nascimur, nascimini, nascuntur, with corresponding forms for other tenses. The sense remains active—“I am born,” “he is born,” and so on—despite the passive morphology. The perfect and future tenses are formed with participial adjectives such as natus or nata (born) combined with auxiliary verbs, yielding translations like “I was born” or “I will be born,” while retaining the deponent characteristic.

Etymology-wise, nascor derives from the Latin infinitive nasci, linked to the verb nascere and related to the noun natus (birth). It has cognates in the Romance languages, such as Spanish nacer, Italian nascere, and French naître. The English word nascent also derives from this root, via Latin nascens (present participle of nasci).

Usage in Latin literature and scripture concerns birth, origin, or emergence. It can denote literal birth or the origin of a thing or idea, sometimes employed metaphorically to indicate the beginning of a state or process.

See also nasci, natus, deponent verbs, and nascent, the English descendant meaning beginning to exist.