nacioun

• nacion, naciun; nacoun, nacyon, nacyoun, nation (Late Middle English)

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman nacion, nacioun, from Latin nātiō, nātiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /ˌnaːsiˈuːn/, /naːˈsjuːn/, /ˈnaːsjun/

nacioun (plural naciouns)

1. A nation; a stable people group with common ancestry, territory, and sometimes government:
   • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “Here Bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunt́burẏ”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 2, verso:

     fful ofte tẏme / he hadde the boꝛd bıgonne / Abouen alle nacıouns ın Pruce / In lettow / hadde he reẏſed / and ın Ruce / No crısten man / so ofte of hıs degree

     Plenty of times he headed the Table [of Honour] / above every nation in Prussia; / in Lithuania and Russia, he'd campaigned more often than any other Christian man of his station.

   1. The representatives of a nation.
   2. (biblical, in the plural) The Gentiles; non-Jewish nations.
2. A people, race, or tribe.
3. A (non-national or ethnic) grouping of people.

• English: nation
• Scots: nation
• → Irish: náisiún

• “nāciǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 24 March 2018.