pregnant
See also: prégnant
English
Alternative forms
- prægnant (obsolete)
- pregnaunt (obsolete)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛɡnənt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛɡnənt
Etymology 1
From Middle English preignant, from Old French preignant, pregnant, also prenant (compare archaic Modern French prégnant), and their source, Latin praegnāns (“pregnant”), probably from prae- (“pre-”) + gnascī (“to be born”). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").
Adjective
pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
- (chiefly not comparable) Carrying developing offspring within the body.
- 2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time:
- Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.
- I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m pregnant!
- Of a couple: expecting a baby together.
- We are pregnant.
-
- (comparable) Having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.
- a pregnant pause
- c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:
- wherein the pregnant enemy does much
- 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, ISSN 0261-3077, OCLC 229952407, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:
- The many tear-jerkers deal with finality, with death and the end of love, with a stoicism pregnant with feeling.
- (poetic) Fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.
-
- (obsolete) Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- play at subtill games; faire vertues all;
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant
-
- (obsolete) Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.
Synonyms
- (carrying offspring (standard)): expecting, expecting a baby, expectant, gravid (of animals only), with child, fertilized
- (carrying offspring (colloquial/slang)): eating for two, having a bun in the oven, in a family way, knocked up, preggers, up the duff, up the spout
- (carrying offspring (euphemistic)): in an interesting condition, in a family way
- (having many possibilities or implications): meaningful, significant
- See also Thesaurus:pregnant
Hyponyms
- (carrying developing offspring): in trouble
Derived terms
- barefoot and pregnant
- fall pregnant
- impregnant
- midpregnant
- negative pregnant
- nonpregnant
- pregnant chad
- pregnant construction
- pregnantly
- pregnantness
- pregnant pause
- prepregnant
- pseudopregnant
- unpregnant
- you can't be half pregnant
Translations
carrying developing offspring within the body
|
having many possibilities or implications
|
fertile — see fertile
Noun
pregnant (plural pregnants)
- A pregnant woman.
- 1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions:
- The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement
-
Translations
pregnant person — see pregnant woman
Etymology 2
Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).
Adjective
pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)
- (now rare) Compelling; clear, evident. [from 14th c.]
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 18, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:
- Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.
-
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French pregnant, from Old French pregnant, from Latin praegnāns.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /prɛxˈnɑnt/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: preg‧nant
- Rhymes: -ɑnt
Adjective
pregnant (comparative pregnanter, superlative pregnantst)
- poignant, incisive
- meaningful, polysemic
- (obsolete) important
Inflection
| Inflection of pregnant | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| uninflected | pregnant | |||
| inflected | pregnante | |||
| comparative | pregnanter | |||
| positive | comparative | superlative | ||
| predicative/adverbial | pregnant | pregnanter | het pregnantst het pregnantste | |
| indefinite | m./f. sing. | pregnante | pregnantere | pregnantste |
| n. sing. | pregnant | pregnanter | pregnantste | |
| plural | pregnante | pregnantere | pregnantste | |
| definite | pregnante | pregnantere | pregnantste | |
| partitive | pregnants | pregnanters | — | |
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from German prägnant and French prégnant.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /preɡˈnant/
Adjective
pregnant m or n (feminine singular pregnantă, masculine plural pregnanți, feminine and neuter plural pregnante)
- pregnant (having many possibilities or implications)
Declension
Declension of pregnant
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative | indefinite | pregnant | pregnantă | pregnanți | pregnante | ||
| definite | pregnantul | pregnanta | pregnanții | pregnantele | |||
| genitive/ dative | indefinite | pregnant | pregnante | pregnanți | pregnante | ||
| definite | pregnantului | pregnantei | pregnanților | pregnantelor | |||