obstetricate
English
Etymology
obstetric + -ate
Verb
obstetricate (third-person singular simple present obstetricates, present participle obstetricating, simple past and past participle obstetricated)
- (obsolete) To assist in the manner or as if in the manner of a midwife.
- 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], OCLC 926218248, chapter XXI (Of the Fir, Pine, Pinaster, Pitch-tree, &c.), page 53:
- Some adviſe us to break the ſhells of Pines to facilitate their delivery, and I have eſſay'd it; but to my loſs; Nature does obſtetricate, and do that office of her ſelf when it is the beſt ſeaſon; [...]
- 1986, John McPhee, Heirs of General Practice:
- Whatever its effect on the soldiers, Paul's sermon on Areopagus has not been forgotten in Mars Hill, Maine, where the town's other doctor wears a cross in his lapel and has personally been obstetricated twice
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Latin
Verb
obstetrīcāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of obstetrīcō