Etymologically
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pregnant

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈpreɡ.nənt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praegnāns (“with child”) (stem praegnant-),[2][3][4] originally praegnās, altered under the influence of the participle ending -āns,[4][5] literally “before birth”, probably from prae- “before” and the root of gnāscī, nāscī “to be born”,[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).[2] The earlier sense “cogent, convincing” came through Old French preignant “pregnant, pithy”,[2] which Etymonline takes as probably the same Latin word;[2] Hoad and Merriam-Webster derive it instead from preindre “to press”, from Latin premere, the source of press.[5][4] It is related to native and nascent.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of an argument or evidence, convincing or compelling: about 1374 in the OED, about 1385 in Barnhart, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.[7][3] With child: probably before 1425 in Barnhart, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,[3] the early 15th century in Etymonline,[2] 1545 in the OED.[7]

Semantic evolution

Full of meaning, weighty, is from 1402,[3] about 1400 in Etymonline.[2] Of a mind, teeming with ideas, is from 1413, as in pregnant wit, common in the 16th and 17th centuries.[7] Fertile soil and fertilized seed were also called pregnant in the 17th century, senses now obsolete.[7] The word tended to be avoided in polite conversation until about 1950, replaced by euphemisms such as expecting, in a family way and in an interesting condition;[2] Old English said mid bearne, “with child”, or bearn-eaca, “child-increasing”.[2] Pregnancy is from before 1529, in Skelton, figuratively, and of a woman from 1598.[3] In Scots it meant full or clever.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1374 – convincing.[7]
  • 1402 – full of meaning.[3]
  • 1413 – full of ideas.[7]
  • a. 1425 – with child.[3]
  • 1529 – pregnancy.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Carrying developing offspring in the body; with child or with young.
  2. Full of meaning; significant: a pregnant pause.
  3. Filled or fraught: pregnant with danger.
  4. (archaic) Convincing; cogent.
  5. Full of ideas; inventive.

Word family

  • pregnantly
  • pregnantness
  • nonpregnant
  • unpregnant
  • impregnant

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 i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ 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)