Etymology

birth

B3I1R1T1H4

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Middle English birthe ← Old Norse burðr ← Proto-Germanic *burþiz
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birth · noun, adjective1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰer-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰértis
  3. Proto-Germanic*burþiz
  4. Old Norseburðr
  5. Middle Englishbirthe
  6. English todaybirth

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.

birth · verb2

  1. Middle English · inherited frombirthen
  2. English todaybirth

From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).

birth · noun3

See berth.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.