Etymology

lusus naturae

Today it means: A sportive quality in Nature to which abnormal forms were formerly ascribed; a supposed capricious act of Nature regarded as the cause and origin of anomalies in a given organism. Full definition →

Latin lūsus nātūrae
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The story

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromlūsus nātūrae
  2. English todaylusus naturae

Learned borrowing from Latin lūsus nātūrae (literally “sport of Nature”), from lūsus (“playing, sport”) + nātūrae (“of Nature”), genitive singular of nātūra (“Nature”). Originally used to explain fossils (pre-paleontology) or abnormalities such as two-headed snakes.

Words from the same roots

Latinlūsus nātūrae all →

freak of naturesport of nature

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.