Birth
/bɜːrθ/noun
The act or process of being born; the emergence of a new organism from the mother or egg.
Did you know?Birth comes from an ancient Germanic root meaning “to bear/carry,” the same root that gave English *bear* in the sense of “to give birth,” not just “to carry a burden.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bher-
“to carry, bear, bring”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*berþō
“birth, the act of bearing”
Old English
OE
byrþ
“birth, bearing, offspring”
Middle English
ME
birth
“birth, lineage, descent”
Modern English
English
birth
“the act of being born”
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