childing
English
WOTD – 9 May 2022
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪŋ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Hyphenation: child‧ing
Etymology 1
From Middle English childing, childinge [and other forms],[1] from childen (“to give birth to a child”)[2] + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerunds from verbs).[3] Equivalent to child + -ing.
Noun
childing (uncountable)
- (archaic) gerund of child: the act or process of childbearing or childbirth.
- Synonyms: delivery, parturition
- 1610 October, John Foxe, “The Whole Tragicall Historie of Frederike the Second Emperor, Translated out of the Latine Booke of Nich[olas] Cisnerus”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. […], volume I, 6th edition, London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for the Company of Stationers, OCLC 81611923, book IV, page 270, column 1:
- This Conſtantia was fiftie yeares of age before ſhe was conceiued with him; whom the emperor Henrie the ſixth to auoide all doubt and ſurmiſe that of hir conception and childing might be thought, and to the perill of the empire inſue: cauſed his regall tent to be pitched abrode in place where euery man might reſort.
- 1809, Robert Southey, “Notes to Book XI”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], OCLC 1191010087, page 252:
- When Zalzer is grown up, and leaves the nest, the Simorg gives him one of her feathers, telling him, whenever he is in great distress, to burn it, and she will immediately come to his assistance. Zalzer marries Rodahver, who is likely to die in childing; he then burns the feather, and the Simorg appears and orders the Cæsarean operation to be performed.
- 1897, William Morris, “The Goodman Gets a New Hired Man”, in [May Morris], editor, The Sundering Flood, London; New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co., […], published 1898, OCLC 1249913898, page 40:
- [H]e had grown up there and there wedded a wife; but that when she died in childing with her first bairn, and the bairn had not lived, he loathed the place, and came back again into the Dale.
- 2008, K. E. Saxon, Highland Vengeance (The Medieval Highlanders; 1), [U.S.A.]: Passion Flower Publishing, published 2012, →ISBN, page 207:
- I only wish you had arrived this day past. For we had a feast in honor of my wife's childing and her father's visit. Your arrival would have given us even more to be glad for.
Translations
act or process of childbearing or childbirth — see childbearing, childbirth
Etymology 2
From late Middle English childing (“pregnant”),[4][5] from childen (“to give birth to a child”)[2] + -ing, -inge (suffix forming the present participles of verbs, which were often used as adjectives);[6] equivalent to child (verb) + -ing (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having a specified characteristic, nature, or quality’, and forming the present participles of verbs).[7]
Adjective
childing (not comparable)
- (archaic)
- Able to bear children; fertile; also, pregnant, or in the process of childbirth, or having just given birth to a child.
- (able to bear children):
- Synonyms: fecund, fruitful
- Antonyms: barren, infertile
- (in the process of childbirth): Synonyms: in delivery, in labour
- (having just given birth): Synonyms: (one sense) postnatal, postpartal, postpartum, post-partural
- 1798, Robert Southey, “The Battle of Blenheim”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published 1838, OCLC 1226748, stanza 8, page 153:
- With fire and sword the country round / Was wasted far and wide, / And many a childing mother then, / And new-born baby died; / But things like that, you know, must be / At every famous victory.
- (able to bear children):
- (horticulture) Of a flowering plant: producing younger florets around an older flower.
- 1629, John Parkinson, “Bellis. Daisie.”, in Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. […], London: […] Hvmfrey Lownes and Robert Yovng […], OCLC 1203323330, pages 323–324:
- [page 323] Bellis minor hortenſis prolifera. Double double Daiſies or childing Daiſies. […] The chiefeſt variety conſiſteth in this, that is beareth many ſmall double flowers, ſtanding vpon very ſhort ſtalkes round about the middle flower, […] [page 324] The French call them Paſquettes, and Marguerites, and the Fruitfull ſort, or thoſe that beare ſmall flowers about the middle one, Margueritons: our Engliſh women call them Iacke an Apes on horſe-backe, as they doe Marigolds before recited, or childing Daiſies: but the Phyſitians and Apothecaries doe in generall call them, eſpecially the ſingle or Field kindes, Conſolida minor.
-
- Able to bear children; fertile; also, pregnant, or in the process of childbirth, or having just given birth to a child.
- (obsolete, figuratively) Fruitful; productive.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, OCLC 1041029189, [Act II, scene i]:
- The Spring, the Sommer, / The childing Autumne, angry Winter change / Their wonted Liueries; and the mazed worlde, / By their increaſe, now knowes not which is which; […]
-
Translations
able to bear children — see fertile
pregnant — see pregnant
in the process of childbirth
having just given birth to a child — see postpartum
of a flowering plant: producing younger florets around an older flower
Verb
childing
- present participle of child
References
- “chīldinge, ger.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “chīlden, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “-ing(e, suf.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “childing” under “chīlden, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “childing2, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “-ing(e, suf.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “childing, adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2020.
Further reading
- childbirth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- chidling
Middle English
Alternative forms
- childinge, childyng, childynge, childinke, childingue, childeng, chyldyng, chyldinge, chyldynge, childenge, chilting, shyldyng
Etymology
From child + -ing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtʃiːldinɡ/
Noun
childing (uncountable)
- childbirth
Descendants
- English: childing (archaic)
References
- “chīldinge, ger.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-07-01.