[Ads-l] nature or nurture

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Interesting topic and valuable citation, Stephen. The Early English
Books Online database has a 1602 work containing the phrase "either in
nature or nurture". I do not know if the terms are meant to be
disjoint / oppositional in denotation or connotation.

Year: 1602
Title: A decacordon of ten quodlibeticall questions concerning
religion and state wherein the authour framing himfelfe [sic] a
quilibet to euery quodlibet, decides an hundred crosse interrogatorie
doubts, about the generall contentions betwixt the seminarie priests
and Iesuits at this present.
Author: W.W. (William Watson), 1559?-1603.
Publication info: [London] : Newly imprinted [by Richard Field]
Collection: Early English Books Online 2

http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A14827.0001.001

[Begin excerpt]
. . . it is to be proued (as apparantly is to be seen) out of sundry
places of holy Scripture with the approbation of the Churches, canons,
constitutions and decres, for such as are to be admitted into holy
orders: as that they should not haue any notable defect either in
nature or nurture, or other mischance in them . . .
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 9:06 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> Francis Galton (1822-1911) is often credited with coining "nature versus nurture." Or "nature or nurture."
> But google books has "guardianship by nature [,] or nurture" as a legal phrase going back to at least 1820, and maybe (in heinonline or elsewhere) yet earlier.
>
> SG
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org