Definition
nounThe process of childbearing; the beginning of life; the emergence of a human baby or other viviparous animal offspring from the mother's body into the environment.
nounAn instance of childbirth.
Sentence Examples
The proliferation of Internet usage has given birth to a new generation of young people.
Henry James was an American by birth.
The baby weighed three kilos at birth.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Indo-European *bʰértisder.
Proto-Germanic *burþiz
Old Norse burðrbor.
Middle English birthe
English birth
From Middle English birthe (1250), from earlier burthe, burde, from Old Norse burðr, byrd (Old Swedish byrth, Swedish börd), replacing Old English ġebyrd (rare variant byrþ), equivalent to bear + -th (thus a piecewise doublet of berth). The Old Norse is from Proto-Germanic *burdiz (compare Old Frisian berde, berd); Old English ġebyrd is from prefixed *gaburþiz (compare Dutch geboorte, German Geburt), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰŕ̥tis (compare Latin fors (“luck”), Old Irish brith), from *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”). More at bear.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth."
— 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:
"without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications"
— 1843, William H. Prescott, History Of The Conquest Of Mexico And History Of The Conquest Of Peru, The Modern Library, page 42:
"Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil."
— 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:
"That poets are far rarer births than kings."
— 1692, Ben Jonson, “Epigrams”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, page 288:
"Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself."
— 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of Joseph Addison, volume 3, John Baskerville, page 49: