puerperal (adj.)

"of or pertaining to childbirth; about to give birth," 1768, with -al (1) + Latin puerperus "bringing forth children; bearing a child" (as a noun, "woman in labor"), from puer "child, boy" (see puerility) + parire "to bring forth, bear, produce, create; bring about, accomplish," from PIE root *pere- (1) "to produce, bring forth"). Earlier puerperial (1620s); puarpure (c. 1500). Related: Puerperally.

also from 1768

Entries linking to puerperal

puerility (n.)

late 15c., puerilite, "a childish or silly act or expression," from Old French puérilité (15c.), from Latin puerilitatem (nominative puerilitas) "childishness," from puerilis "boyish, youthful; childish, trivial, silly," from puer "child, boy" (from PIE root *pau- (1) "few, little," with sense extended to "small, young;" source also of Latin putus "boy," Sanskrit putrah "son, boy," Avestan puthra- "son, child"). Meaning "puerile character or condition, boyishness" is by 1570s.

puerperium (n.)

"confinement during and after childbirth," 1863, from Latin puerperus (see puerperal). From c. 1600 in navitized form puerpery.

-al

*pere-

*pau-

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Trends of puerperal

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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septicemia

cases the decaying contents of the uterus, and the putrid infection of the blood from this source, constitute the so-called puerperal...admission of this septicemia explains the putrid accidents, as observed in men, the foetus, and wounded persons during a puerperal...

heredity

1530s, "inheritance, succession," from French hérédité, from Old French eredite "inheritance, legacy" (12c.), from Latin hereditatem (nominative hereditas) "heirship, inheritance, an inheritance, condition of being an heir," from heres (genitive heredis) "heir, heiress" (from PIE

orange

late 14c., in reference to the fruit of the orange tree (late 13c. as a surname), from Old French orange, orenge (12c., Modern French orange), from Medieval Latin pomum de orenge, from Italian arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), an alteration of Arabic naranj, from P

sacrament

late Old English, in Christian use, "an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace," especially "a sacrament of the Church, one of the religious ceremonies enjoined by Christ or the Church," and later specifically "the sacrament of the Eucharist" (c. 1300), from Old F

Beelzebub

Old English Belzebub, Philistine god worshipped at Ekron (II Kings i.2), from Latin, used in Vulgate for New Testament Greek beelzeboub, from Hebrew ba'al-z'bub "lord of the flies," from ba'al "lord" (see Baal) + z'bhubh "fly." The deity is said to have been worshipped as having

assiduous

"attentive, devoted, constant in application," 1530s, from Latin assiduus "attending; continually present, incessant; busy; constant," from assidere/adsidere "to sit down to, sit by" (thus "be constantly occupied" at one's work); from ad "to" (see ad-) + sedere "to sit" (from PIE

butterfly

common name of any lepidopterous insect active in daylight, Old English buttorfleoge, evidently butter (n.) + fly (n.), but the name is of obscure signification. Perhaps based on the old notion that the insects (or, according to Grimm, witches disguised as butterflies) consume bu

taboo

also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed; prohibited to a certain class," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark"

prism

1560s, in geometry, "a solid whose bases or ends are any similar, equal, and parallel plane polygons, and whose sides are parallelograms" (not always triangular), from Late Latin prisma, from Greek prisma "a geometrical prism, trilateral column," (Euclid), literally "something sa

reefer

"marijuana cigarette," 1920s, perhaps an alteration of Mexican Spanish grifo "marijuana, drug addict" [OED]; or perhaps from reef (v.), on resemblance to a rolled sail. It also meant "pickpocket" in criminal slang (by 1935), and Century Dictionary also has it as "oyster that grow

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updated on January 28, 2021

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