midwifery

Etymology

It is formed from English midwife + -ery,^[2][3][4] and its Middle English form was medewifri, from medewif, a variant of the base noun.^[5][6][7] Etymonline and Klein call it a hybrid, because the suffix is of Romance origin.^[3][4] The Shorter Oxford derives it from the verb rather than the noun,^[8] and the OED compares the earlier noun midwifing.^[2] The base noun is from Middle English midwif, probably formed from mid (“with”) and wif (“woman”), from Old English mid and wīf,^[2][3][4][9] literally a woman who is with the mother at the birth.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The craft or service of a midwife: about 1475, in the Catholicon Anglicum, where to do medewifry glosses the Latin verb obstetricare.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the late 15th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the 1590s the word was also used figuratively, of help in bringing something into being: the OED's first example is from the Pilgrimage to Parnassus of 1597.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, "assistance given at childbirth" and "help to production; co-operation in production", the second with a quotation from Stepney about flowers that scorn "the midwifry of rip'ning show'rs".^[12] In medicine the word also came to name the branch that deals with childbirth, obstetrics.^[2][6][13]

Timeline

• c. 1475 – the craft or work of a midwife, as medewifry.^[2][5]
• 1597 – figuratively, help in bringing something into being.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The work or profession of a midwife; the practice of helping women in childbirth: She trained in midwifery after ten years as a nurse.^[13][6][2]
2. The branch of medicine that deals with childbirth; obstetrics.^[13][6][2]
3. Help in producing or bringing about something: The treaty owed much to the quiet midwifery of a few diplomats.^[6][2]

Related words

• midwife
• wife

Usage notes

The OED notes that its first edition (1906) also gave a pronunciation without the w, which was probably already going out of use, and that the British pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable is first recorded in the later 20th century, probably under the influence of other long words in -ery.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins