birth

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /bɜːθ/, US /bɝːθ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English birthe, earlier burthe and birde,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse byrð (“birth, descent”),^[4][3][5] which displaced the cognate Old English ġebyrd (“birth, descent, race”).^[6][2] It is from Proto-Germanic *gaburþiz,^[6][2] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“to carry; to bear children”),^[6][2] the root of the verb bear, with the suffix of process -th, as in bath and death.^[6][4] It is cognate with Old High German giburt (German Geburt) and Dutch geboorte.^[6][2] Spellings with d, up to the mid-13th century, show the Old English form giving way to the Norse one.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact of being born: about 1200,^[6][7] and probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, as burthe.^[2] The form birthe is from about 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lineage, the condition into which one is born, is also from about 1200, a sense the Old English word already had.^[6] Childbirth, the act of bearing, is from the mid-13th century^[6] (before 1300 in the OED),^[7] and in Middle English the word could also mean “conception” and “offspring, child”.^[6][7] The figurative “origin, beginning” of things is from 1588 in the OED^[7] and the 1610s in Etymonline.^[6] The verb, “to be born”, is from the mid-13th century,^[6] “to give birth to” from 1906,^[6] and the American Heritage Dictionary notes that to birth a child was long Southern US usage.^[8] Birth certificate is from 1842 and birth control from 1914.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the fact of being born; lineage.^[6]
• mid-13th century – childbirth; verb, to be born.^[6]
• 1588 – the origin of a thing.^[7]
• 1842 – birth certificate.^[6]
• 1906 – verb, to give birth to.^[6]
• 1914 – birth control.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The emergence of a baby or young animal from the mother's body; the act of bearing young.
2. The time or circumstances of being born.
3. Origin or descent; lineage: of noble birth.
4. A beginning or origin: the birth of jazz.

Verb

1. To give birth to; to deliver a baby.

Word family

• birthmark
• birthnight
• birthroot
• birthstool
• birthweight
• birthwort
• multibirth
• prebirth

Related words

• bear
• born
• birthday
• burden
• berth

Usage notes

In Orkney dialect a birth was a current in the sea caused by a strong tide but running a different way from it.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)