Prenatal comes from pre- ('before') + natal. Natal derives from Latin natalis ('relating to birth'), from natus ('born'), past participle of nasci ('to be born'). The historical chain includes Latin natalis and Latin nasci. The quoted older senses, "before", "relating to birth", "born", and "to be born", supply the semantic anchors for prenatal. The formation is best read as compound, participial, and borrowed: the word prenatal carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "occurring or existing before birth". English derivatives include prenatally; related English forms include natal, native, and nativity. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.