born
adjUK /bɔːn/ · US /boɹn/
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der. Proto-Germanic *buranaz Proto-West Germanic *boran Old English boren, ġeboren Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne English born From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).
1
Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited.
- In the United States, information describing the operation of nuclear weapons is born secret.
- a born leader
3 more examples
- I'll make it out, deny it he that can, / His Worship is a True-born Engliſhman, / In all the Latitude that Empty Word / By Modern Acceptation's understood.1701 January (indicated as 1700), [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in The True-Born Englishman. A Satyr, [London: s.n.], →OCLC, page 61:
- I ought really to have called him my sergeant. He's a born sergeant. That's as much as to say he's a born scoundrel.1942, Storm Jameson, Then we shall hear singing: a fantasy in C major:
- “Your desert boots are fitted slip-fashion at the ankles. Who told you to do that?” "It . . . seemed the right way." "That it most certainly is." And Kynes rubbed his cheek, thinking of the legend: "He shall know your ways as though born to them."1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book I: Dune”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 108:
- Derived terms
98 terms
aborn, aborning, afterborn, all one's born days, baseborn, base-born, be born last week, be born yesterday, born again, born-again, born-again virgin, born-alive, born and bred, born at night but not last night, born digital, born-free, born in a barn, born in a mill, born in the purple, born in the vestry, born killer, born leader, bornless, born loser, bornness, born on the 4th of July, born on the Fourth of July, born sleeping, born tired, born to the purple, born with a silver spoon in one's mouth, born yesterday, dead-born, deadborn, dragonborn, earthborn, firstborn, first-born, foreign-born, forest-born, freeborn, me born, full-born, hagborn, hedgeborn, hellborn, hell-born, high-born, highborn, homeborn, in all one's born days, in one's born days, I was born in ..., last-born, lastborn, liveborn, low-born, middleborn, misborn, naked as the day one was born, native-born, natural-born, new-born, newborn, nextborn, noble-born, no one is born a master, not know one is born, odalborn, one's father was born before one, onlyborn, outborn, preborn, quickborn, reborn, seaborn, secondborn, sky-born, slaveborn, stillborn, still-born, there's a sucker born every minute, there's one born every minute, thirdborn, to the manner born, to the manor born, true-born, trueborn, twice-born, twin-born, twinborn, unborn, virgin-born, wellborn, well-born, were you born in a tent, woman-born-woman, womyn-born-womyn