The story
The phrase was coined in the mid-1800s by the English Victorian polymath Francis Galton in discussion about the influence of heredity and environment on social advancement.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
nature versus nurture
Today it means: The longstanding academic inquiry into the relative contributions of innate biological factors (nature) and environmental influences or upbringing (nurture) to the development of human traits, behaviors, personality and psychology. Full definition →