English → Latin
“nation” in Latin
gēnsRoman clan (related by birth or marriage and sharing a common name and often united by certain religious rites); stock, nātiōbirth; nation, people; race, classpopulusa people, nation; a community of people; the people, public, crowd, host, multitudeLatīnusLatin; of or pertaining to Latium, the Latin language, people, or cultureexteron the outside, outward, external, outer, far, remote; of another country; foreign, strange
The English word nation itself goes back to Latin nātiō, through nātiōnem.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
nation
gens (φῦλον, the most comprehensive term): natio (ἐθνος, a people of the gens): populus (δῆμος, the inhabitants a place, considered with regard to their social and political relations). ☞ A civilized natio sometimes forms part of a natural gens; sometimes gens, politically, forms part of a populus. ☞ Gens and natio are often used promiscuously by Roman writers: we find, also, (The words are found in this connection and order.) gentes nationesque; populi nationesque; populi et gentes. ☞ In the historical style we often find nomen for gens or populus; i. e., nomen Romanum, Latinum. Gens is rarely combined with nomen. A foreign nation, populus externus; gens, natio, extera (Cic.): an ancient nation, gens antiqua: a great, powerful nation, populus magnus, opulentus, potens: a warlike nation, gens bellicosa, fera, fortis; populus fortis: a free nation, populus invictus, liber.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for nation?
- The usual Latin words for “nation” are gēns, nātiō, populus; also Latīnus, exter. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.