child

noun
/tʃaɪld/US/tʃəɪ̯(ə)ɫd/CA/tʃɑeld/

Etymology

From Middle English child, from Old English ċild, from Proto-West Germanic *kilþ, *kelþ, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵelt- (“womb”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit जर्त (jarta), जर्तु (jártu, “vulva”).

  1. derived from *gel-
  2. derived from *ǵelt-
  3. inherited from *kelþaz
  4. inherited from *kilþ
  5. inherited from ċild
  6. inherited from child

Definitions

  1. A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural…

    A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).

    • Go easy on him: he is but a child.
    • And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo.
  2. One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age

    One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.

    • My youngest child is forty-three this year.
    • His adult children visit him yearly.
  3. The thirteenth Lenormand card.

  4. + 8 more definitions
    1. A figurative offspring

      • the children of Israel
      • He is a child of his times.
      • For more than forty years, he preached the creed of art and beauty. He was heir to the ancient wisdom of Israel, a child of Germany, a subject of Great Britain, later an American citizen, but in truth a citizen of the world.
    2. Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”).

    3. A subordinate node of a tree.

    4. An adult or adolescent with childish or stupid behaviors.

      • My husband is such a child, going out with his sled everytime it snows.
    5. A female child, a girl.

      • A boy, or a Childe I wonder?
    6. To give birth

      To give birth; to beget or procreate.

      • My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo, Whileſt ye in durance dwelt, ye to me gaue A little mayde, the which ye chylded tho ; The ſame againe if now ye liſt to haue, The ſame is yonder Lady, whom high God did ſaue.
      • And from his fertill hollow wombe forth ran, (Clad in rare weedes and ſtrange habiliment) A Nymph, for age able to goe to man, An hundreth plants beſide (euen in his ſight) Childed an hundreth Nymphes, ſo great, ſo dight:[…]
    7. Alternative letter-case form of child often used when referring to God (Jesus) or another…

      Alternative letter-case form of child often used when referring to God (Jesus) or another important child who is understood from context.

      • He appeared as an only begotten Child, as a Child calling us to be children also, and yet with this difference, that He and His Father maintained a holy intimacy with each other which no one dared to share.
    8. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at child. 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.

01child02cultural03culture04ideologies05ideology06principles07principle08guiding09girl

A definitional loop anchored at child. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at child

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