birth
nounEtymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *bʰértisder. Proto-Germanic *burþiz Old Norse burðrbor. Middle English birthe English birth From Middle English birthe (1250), from earlier burthe, burde, from Old Norse burðr, byrd (Old Swedish byrth, Swedish börd), replacing Old English ġebyrd (rare variant byrþ), equivalent to bear + -th (thus a piecewise doublet of berth). The Old Norse is from Proto-Germanic *burdiz (compare Old Frisian berde, berd); Old English ġebyrd is from prefixed *gaburþiz (compare Dutch geboorte, German Geburt), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰŕ̥tis (compare Latin fors (“luck”), Old Irish brith), from *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”). More at bear.
Definitions
The process of childbearing
The process of childbearing; the beginning of life; the emergence of a human baby or other viviparous animal offspring from the mother's body into the environment.
An instance of childbirth.
- Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.
- In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth.
A beginning or start
A beginning or start; a point of origin.
- the birth of an empire
›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer
The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
- He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.
- without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications
- Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil.
That which is born.
- That poets are far rarer births than kings.
- Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.
A familial relationship established by childbirth.
- Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.
To bear or give birth to (a child).
- I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!
To produce, give rise to.
- Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it.
Obsolete spelling of berth.
- He vvas a Surgeon, and they called him Doctor; but he vvas not employed in the Sloop as a Surgeon, but vvas going to Berbadoes to get a Birth, as the Sailors call it.
- Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain called it.
The neighborhood
Derived
AFAB, AMAB, antibirth, birf, birth-assigned, birth canal, birth cert, birth-certificate, birth certificate, birth chair, birth chart, birthchild, birth control, birth control glasses, birth date, birth defect, birthdom, birther, birthfamily, birthfather, birth father, birthfeast, birthgasm, birthgiver, birthhome, birthhood, birth hour, birthhouse, birthland, birthless, birthline, birthmark, birthmate, birth month, birthmother, birth name, birthnight, birth pang, birthparent, birth plan · +83 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at birth. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at birth. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at birth
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA