birth
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L307731 on Wikidata ↗noun
- process of giving birth to one or more offspring
- start of a life
- bear children
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /bɜːθ/ / /bɜːð/ / /bɜɹθ/
adj
Etymology: 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.
- A familial relationship established by childbirth.
“Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.”
noun
Etymology: See berth.
- 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.”
“And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed ſeveral feet under vvater, being immediately above the hold: I had no ſooner approached this diſmal gulph, than my noſe vvas ſaluted vvith an intolerable ſtench of putrified cheeſe, and rancid butter, […]”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).
- To bear or give birth to (a child).
“I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!”
“Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold? Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat. Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown.”
- 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.”