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Birth

//bɜːθ// adj, noun, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    A familial relationship established by childbirth. not-comparable

    "Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather."

Noun
  1. 1
    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. uncountable
  2. 2
    Obsolete spelling of berth. alt-of, obsolete

    "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."

  3. 3
    the event of being born wordnet
  4. 4
    An instance of childbirth. countable

    "Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births."

  5. 5
    a baby born; an offspring wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    A beginning or start; a point of origin. countable

    "the birth of an empire"

  2. 7
    the process of giving birth wordnet
  3. 8
    The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing. uncountable

    "He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him."

  4. 9
    the kinship relation of an offspring to the parents wordnet
  5. 10
    That which is born. countable, uncountable

    "That poets are far rarer births than kings."

  6. 11
    the time when something begins (especially life) wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To bear or give birth to (a child). transitive

    "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!"

  2. 2
    cause to be born wordnet
  3. 3
    To produce, give rise to. figuratively, transitive

    "Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Etymology 3

From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).

Etymology 4

See berth.

See also for "birth"

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