Etymology

childbirth

C3H4I1L1D2B3I1R1T1H4

Today it means: The fact or action of giving birth to a child, as the culmination of pregnancy; the process by which it happens. Full definition →

Middle English childbyrth ← Old Norse barnburðr
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old Norse · derived frombarnburðr“childbearing, childbirth”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromchildbyrth
  3. English todaychildbirth

From Middle English childbyrth [and other forms], perhaps a partial calque of Old Norse barnburðr (“childbearing, childbirth”, literally “bairn birth”); equivalent to child + birth. Compare Swedish barnsbörd (“childbirth”), Icelandic barnsburður (“childbirth”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.