womb

The story

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wambō“belly, stomach, abdomen”
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wambu
3. Old English · inherited fromwomb
4. Middle English · inherited fromwombe
5. English todaywomb

From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *wambu, from Proto-Germanic *wambō (“belly, stomach, abdomen”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame (“womb”), Dutch wam (“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), Danish vom (“belly, paunch, rumen”), Swedish våmb (“belly, stomach, rumen”), Norwegian vom (“rumen”), Icelandic vömb (“belly, abdomen, stomach”), Old Welsh gumbelauc (“womb”), Breton gwamm (“woman, wife”), Sanskrit वपा (vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”). Superseded nonnative Middle English mater, matere (“womb”), and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin māter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 8th c. In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus.
• 8th–17th c. The abdomen or stomach.
• 8th–18th c. The stomach of a person or creature.
• from 15th c. A place where something is made or formed.