puerperium Latin · revision 36540

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la puerpera}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [pu.ɛrˈpɛ.ri.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [pu.erˈpɛː.ri.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''puerperium''' ''n'' (genitive puerperiī or puerperī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|puerpera|-ium|t1=woman in childbirth]],^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) and so goes back to [[m|la|puer|t=boy, child]] and [[m|la|pariō|t=to give birth]].^(OLD 2012)^(Bianchi & Lelli 2014)

+

+ Suetonius explains that any birth, whatever the child's sex, was given this name because the ancients also called girls [[m|la|puera|alt=puerae]].^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has it first,^(Köbler 2010)^(TLL) in the ''Truculentus'', in the phrase ''puerperiō cubāre'' “to lie in [[m|en|childbed]]”.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The TLL finds the singular from Plautus, Catullus and Varro on, and the plural from the elder Seneca.^(TLL) It meant [[m|en|childbirth]] and the time of lying-in: Tacitus names Antium as a place of birth and speaks of a woman distinguished by her many children.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Columella pictures the earth glad in an endless childbearing.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ By metonymy it meant the [[m|en|offspring]] of one delivery: Pliny the Elder says that when twins are born the mother or one of the children rarely survives, and Gellius reports what Aristotle wrote about the number born at a single birth.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In British medieval Latin ''virgināle puerperium'' and similar phrases named the [[m|en|Virgin Birth]], the birth of Christ, and pictures of the Nativity.^(DMLBS)

+

+ Italian ''puerperio'' continues it.^(Conte 2010) English used the naturalised [[m|en|puerpery]] from about 1600 and took ''puerperium'' itself as a medical term for the confinement after childbirth in 1863.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of lying in childbed.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella pictures the earth in endless childbearing.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the children of one delivery.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius explains why any birth is called by this name.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of the number of children born together.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 639–709 AD – Aldhelm speaks of the virgin birth.^(DMLBS)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1863 – English borrows it as a medical term.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|childbirth|alt=Childbirth]], delivery; [[m|en|childbed]], [[m|en|confinement]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The [[m|en|offspring]] born at one delivery; a newborn child.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' The [[m|en|Virgin Birth]], the birth of Christ.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pariō]]

+ * [[puer]]

+ * [[puerperus]]

+ * [[en|puerperium]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}