英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

nurse: nurse: [13] The ultimate source of nurse was Latin nūtrīre (which also gave English nourish [13], nutriment [16], and nutrition [16]). This originally meant ‘suckle’ (it is related to Sanskrit snauti ‘drips, trickles’), but was later generalized to ‘feed, nourish’ and ‘look after’. Both ‘suckle’ and ‘look after’ are preserved in nurse, which comes via Old French nourice from the late Latin derivative nūtrīcia, although originally the ‘looking after’ was restricted to children: the notion of a nurse as a ‘carer for sick people’ did not emerge in English until the end of the 16th century.

The derivative nursery [16] retains its associations with children, and by extension with young plants. Late Latin nūtrītūra ‘feeding’, based on nūtrīre, gave English nurture [14].
=> nourish, nurture, nutriment, nutrition
child (n.): Old English cild "fetus, infant, unborn or newly born person," from Proto-Germanic *kiltham (cognates: Gothic kilþei "womb," inkilþo "pregnant;" Danish kuld "children of the same marriage;" Old Swedish kulder "litter;" Old English cildhama "womb," lit. "child-home"); no certain cognates outside Germanic. "App[arently] originally always used in relation to the mother as the 'fruit of the womb'" [Buck]. Also in late Old English, "a youth of gentle birth" (archaic, usually written childe). In 16c.-17c. especially "girl child."

The wider sense "young person before the onset of puberty" developed in late Old English. Phrase with child "pregnant" (late 12c.) retains the original sense. The sense extension from "infant" to "child" also is found in French enfant, Latin infans. Meaning "one's own child; offspring of parents" is from late 12c. (the Old English word was bearn; see bairn). Figurative use from late 14c. Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "a child" and "one's child," though there are exceptions (such as Latin liberi/pueri).

The difficulty with the plural began in Old English, where the nominative plural was at first cild, identical with the singular, then c.975 a plural form cildru (genitive cildra) arose, probably for clarity's sake, only to be re-pluraled late 12c. as children, which is thus a double plural. Middle English plural cildre survives in Lancashire dialect childer and in Childermas.

Child abuse is attested by 1963; child-molester from 1950. Child care is from 1915. Child's play, figurative of something easy, is in Chaucer (late 14c.).
enceinte (adj.): "pregnant, with child," c. 1600, insente, from French enceinte "pregnant" (12c.), from Late Latin incincta (source of Italian incinta), explained by Isidore of Seville (7c.) as "ungirt," from Latin in-, privative prefix (see in- (1)), + cincta, fem. of cinctus, past participle of cingere "to gird" (see cinch). But perhaps the Late Latin word is from past participle of Latin incingere "to put into a girdle" (that is, "to make (a woman) pregnant"), with in- (2) "in, into." Modern form is 18c., perhaps a reborrowing from French.
gastro-: also gastero-, scientific word-forming element meaning "stomach," before vowels gastr-, from Greek gastro-, comb. form of gaster (genitive gastros) "belly, paunch; womb" (see gastric). Also used in compounds in ancient Greek, as gastrobarys "heavy with child."
gravid (adj.): "pregnant," 1590s, from Latin gravidus "loaded, full, swollen; pregnant with child," from gravis "burdened, heavy" (see grave (adj.)). Related: Gravidity. Gravidation "pregnancy" is attested from mid-15c.
pregnant (adj.2): "convincing, weighty, pithy," late 14c., "cogent, convincing, compelling" (of evidence, an argument, etc.); sense of "full of meaning" is from c. 1400. According to OED from Old French preignant, present participle of preindre "press, squeeze, stamp, crush," from earlier priembre, from Latin premere "to press" (see press (v.1)). But Watkins has it from Latin praehendere "to grasp, seize," and in Barnhart it is from Latin praegnans "with child," literally "before birth" and thus identical with pregnant (adj.1).
pregnant (adj.1): "with child," early 15c., from Latin praegnantem (nominative praegnans, originally praegnas) "with child," literally "before birth," probably from prae- "before" (see pre-) + root of gnasci "be born" (see genus).

Retained its status as a taboo word until c. 1950; modern euphemisms include anticipating, enceinte, expecting, in a family way, in a delicate (or interesting) condition. Old English terms included mid-bearne, literally "with child;" bearn-eaca, literally "child-adding" or "child-increasing;" and geacnod "increased." Among c. 1800 slang terms for "pregnant" was poisoned (in reference to the swelling).
primigravida: 1879, from earlier use in German, from Modern Latin, from Latin primus "first" (see prime (adj.)) + gravidus "laden, full, swollen, pregnant with child" (see gravid).
with (prep.): Old English wið "against, opposite, from, toward, by, near," a shortened form related to wiðer, from Proto-Germanic *withro- "against" (cognates: Old Saxon withar "against," Old Norse viðr "against, with, toward, at," Middle Dutch, Dutch weder, Dutch weer "again," Gothic wiþra "against, opposite"), from PIE *wi-tero-, literally "more apart," suffixed form of root *wi- "separation" (cognates: Sanskrit vi, Avestan vi- "asunder," Sanskrit vitaram "further, farther," Old Church Slavonic vutoru "other, second").

Sense shifted in Middle English to denote association, combination, and union, partly by influence of Old Norse vidh, and also perhaps by Latin cum "with" (as in pugnare cum "fight with"). In this sense, it replaced Old English mid "with," which survives only as a prefix (as in midwife). Original sense of "against, in opposition" is retained in compounds such as withhold, withdraw, withstand. Often treated as a conjunction by ungrammatical writers and used where and would be correct. First record of with child "pregnant" is recorded from c. 1200. With it "cool" is black slang, recorded by 1931. French avec "with" was originally avoc, from Vulgar Latin *abhoc, from apud hoc, literally "with this."
kidult: "An adult with childish tastes", 1960s: blend of kid¹ and adult.