Etymology

miscarriage

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Today it means: A failure; a mistake or error. Full definition →

First used 16th c.English carriage ← Middle English mys- ← Old English mis-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*meyth₂-
  3. Proto-Germanic*missaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*missa-
  5. Proto-West Germanic*missa-
  6. Old Englishmis-
  7. Middle Englishmys-
  8. Englishmis-
  9. Englishcarriage
  10. English todaymiscarriage

From mis- + carriage.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 16th c. A failure; a mistake or error.
  • from 17th c. The spontaneous natural termination of a pregnancy, especially before it is viable; the fatal expulsion of a foetus from the womb before term.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.