Miscarry
/ˌmɪsˈkæri/noun
To fail to complete or achieve something; in medicine, to have a pregnancy end before the fetus is viable.
Did you know?The core *mis-* element is an ancient Germanic prefix meaning “wrongly” or “badly,” and in English it helped turn an ordinary idea of carrying into a word for tragic failure.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*mis-*
“wrongly, badly, astray”
Old English
OE
mis-
“wrongly, badly, in error”
Old English
OE
carrien
“to carry, transport”
Middle English
ME
miscarren
“to fail, go wrong; later, to abort a pregnancy”
Modern English
English
miscarry
“to fail or to suffer a miscarriage”