birth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɜːθ/
ipa: /bɜːð/
enpr: bûrth
ipa: /bɜɹθ/
ipa: /bɝð/
ipa: /bɪɹθ/
ipa: /bɪɹð/
ipa: /bøːθ/
ipa: /bøːð/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
ipa: /beːθ/
ipa: /beːð/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
ipa: /bɛːθ/
ipa: /bɛːð/
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
homophone: berth (fern–fir–fur merger)
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ
Forms: form: births
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.
Senses: glosses: 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.
examples: text: Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.
text: In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth.
ref: 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:
glosses: An instance of childbirth.
examples: text: the birth of an empire
glosses: A beginning or start; a point of origin.
examples: text: He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.
text: without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications
ref: 1843, William H. Prescott, History Of The Conquest Of Mexico And History Of The Conquest Of Peru, The Modern Library, page 42:
text: 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.
ref: 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:
glosses: The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
examples: text: That poets are far rarer births than kings.
ref: 1692, Ben Jonson, “Epigrams”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, page 288:
text: Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.
ref: 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of Joseph Addison, volume 3, John Baskerville, page 49:
glosses: That which is born.
Derived terms: 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
birth father
birthfather
birthfeast
birthgasm
birthgiver
birthhome
birthhood
birthhouse
birthland
birthless
birthline
birthmark
birthmate
birthmother
birth name
birthnight
birth pang
birthparent
birth plan
birthquake
birthroot
birth sex
birth sin
birthsite
birthstead
birthstool
birth stool
birthtide
birthtime
birth time
birth tongue
birth-tongue
birthtongue
birth-to-potty
birth-to-potty diaper
birth-to-potty nappy
birth tourist
birth tray
birthweight
birth weight
birthwise
birthwort
birthy
coffin birth
cross-birth
crude birth rate
date of birth
fraternal birth order effect
fraternal birth-order effect
freebirth
give birth
homebirth
inbirth
interbirth
live birth
livebirth
lotus birth
misbirth
multibirth
multiple birth
natural birth
nonbirth
outbirth
partial-birth abortion
place of birth
postbirth
prebirth
premature birth
pro-birth
rebirth
starbirth
stillbirth
traditional birth attendant
twilight birth
unbirth
vaginal birth
watch-birth
water birth
wrongful birth