Is there a single English word that describes the geographic place and time of a person's birth?
My real question is how do I express where I was born at a particular time in history with a single word.
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Why would you want or need to do this?– Kit Z. Fox ♦Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 1:24
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There are some specific examples, such as *He was an Elizibethan. But this merely an example of, and not a a generic term for the concept.– bibCommented Feb 14, 2014 at 13:17
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Besides any answer below, I add another example, which could be "Nativity". Of course, that's only if you are Jesus Christ. However, the could be a useful example, depending on what your goal is. For example, if you're writing fiction, you could name an event after a person's birth if that person was supposedly sufficiently important (similar to how the midnight of January 1, 1970, which Unix users have named "epoch", though that particular example doesn't mention the place).– TOOGAMCommented Nov 22, 2015 at 17:50
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'Birth coordinates' is what they use, translated, in European languages, but not really in English.– MitchCommented Nov 22, 2015 at 18:45
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vital statistics refers to data about birth, marriage, death, and other life events, as recorded by public bodies. It isn't an exact match but might do as a general term for such data.– Stuart FCommented Mar 21, 2023 at 14:59
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6 Answers
I doubt there is any such word. Natal time and Natal place are two different elements and not often combined. Only horoscopes use both that I know of, and if they have one term it might well be considered jargon.
No. They are two different concepts and cannot be described with a single word. The shortest can be
I was born on 12/12/1800 in Oxford.
Setting seems to be a general term used to specify both time and place, but not specifically for birth.
answered Feb 14, 2014 at 2:36
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I don't think Setting defines a time at all. And usually it is just describing what is in the location, not where it is. For example, the "setting" for a scene in a play tells where the furniture is, not its GPS location.– OldcatCommented Feb 14, 2014 at 17:40
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That's why I said "seems to" and "general". Setting does take into account a both time and place. There is no one-word phrase that exactly depicts time to the millisecond and place to the degree, minute, and second. Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 20:07
In English, following an olde tradition we use an ISO 8601 timestamp with a UTC timezone offset. That indicates the time and date, and narrows your birthplace down to one timezone, which is good enough for most uses. This also has the advantage of reducing North-South discrimination.
Origin. My origin was Germany on such-and-such a date. It does tend to strongly suggest a location, more than it does time. For time, it may need a little help (like the word "on", as shown, or "at"), but if you mention a time, people will understand you mean your birth time because of the word "origin".
Following on from earlier contributions, I suggest 'natality.'
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1Agreed, just as 'mortality' means death rate. Still, I am reminded of my own mortality. Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 15:59
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This is effectively a proposal that the word be used in a new way; the question asks whether there is a word that already has that meaning.– jsw29Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 20:36