engendrure
English
Alternative forms
- engendure
Etymology
Old French engendreure.
Noun
engendrure (countable and uncountable, plural engendrures)
- (obsolete) The act of generation.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wyfe of Bathes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: Printed by [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio xxxvii, recto:
- So that the clerkes be nat with me wroth / I ſaye that they were maked for bothe / This is to ſeyn, for offyce and for ease / Of engendrure, there we nat god diſpleaſe
- So that the clerks be not with me wrathful / I say that they [genitals] were made for both / This is to say, for duty and for ease / Of reproduction, that we not God displease
-
Related terms
- engender
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for engendrure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)