abortional

en-adj

abortional (comparative more abortional, superlative most abortional)

more abortional (comparative)
most abortional (superlative)

/əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩.l̩/

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(rare) Pertaining to abortion; miscarrying; abortive.


abortifacient

abortifacient (comparative more abortifacient, superlative most abortifacient)

more abortifacient (comparative)
most abortifacient (superlative)

First attested in 1875. abort + -facient (“causing an”), from Latin facere (“to make”).


abolitionism

en-noun

abolitionism (countable and uncountable, plural abolitionisms)

Norwegian Bokmål: abolisjonisme

Polish: abolicjonizm

/ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.əˌnɪz.m̩/

աբոլիցիոնիզմ

opinion in favor of the abolition of something

Abolitionism is a term that refers to a particular ideological and legal approach to prostitution. The approach has its roots in 19th-century feminism and is still a potent force […] Thus abolitionism arose as a movement against the state regulation of prostitution. The leader of the abolitionist movement was Josephine Butler, […]

2006 January 1, Melissa Hope Ditmore, Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 4:

Support for the abolition of something; the tenets of abolitionists.

Support for the abolition (banning) of sex work.


abortionist

Mad. Restell, the celebrated Abortionist [is arrested].

The quack abortionist, with “a little knowledge,” impudently, remorselessly, and secretly employs his craft for filthy lucre’s sake, perpetrating one crime to conceal another, at which science and charity blush.

1848 October 7, “Morals and Murder – the Case of Eliza Wilson”, in The Medical Times, volume 18, number 471, London, page 373:

Such a fetus is perfectly viable save for the act of the abortionist.

1998, J. David Bleich, Bioethical Dilemmas: A Jewish Perspective, volume 1, Hoboken, New Jersey: KTAV Publishing House, →ISBN, page 277:

According to Bray, “there is a difference between taking a retired abortionist and executing him, and killing a practicing abortionist who is regularly killing babies.” The first act is in Bray’s view retributive, the second defensive.

2003, Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd edition, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 24:

In 1962, when abortion was still illegal, I published an anonymous interview with Dr. Robert Spencer, a humane abortionist who was known as “The Saint.”

2005, Paul Krassner, One Hand Jerking: Reports from an Investigative Satirist, →ISBN, page 24:

[…] a gruesome procedure in which the abortionist dismembers a child who could survive outside the womb.

2009, Dinesh D’Souza, Letters to a Young Conservative, →ISBN, page 191:

Then she asks her to go first to meet the abortionist. Then she neglects to make a reservation at the hotel the abortionist specifies. That almost sinks the arrangement: The abortionist has experience suggesting that hotel will be a safe venue, and suspects he may be set up for a police trap.

2009–2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2010, review of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, page 146:

(now sometimes offensive) A person who performs abortions, especially illegally or secretly.

aborteur

person who performs abortions — see also angel maker

(chiefly derogatory) A person who advocates for or supports the legality of abortion.


rag week

From rag (“piece of old cloth”) + week. From the former use, by women, of rags to protect their clothing from menstrual blood.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rag week.wav

I wouldn't bother trying to get off with her – it's rag week.

(British slang, vulgar) The days of the month when a woman has her period.


accoucheur

Attested since 1727. Borrowed from French accoucheur, from accoucher (“to go to childbed, be delivered”), from Old French culcher (“to lie”), from Latin collocō (“I place, put, set in order, assign”), from con- + locō (“I put, place, set”). See accouchement.

der

And lastly, obstetrical chairs seemed most natural to the accoucheurs of the middle ages.

1951 February, Forrest H. Howard, “The Physiologic Position for Delivery”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 2, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 98:

Family story: on the day of his birth the accoucheur approached his father, the baby wrapped in a cloth.

1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 163:

(medicine) A person, especially a man, who delivers a baby (in childbirth).


abortive

en-adj

abortive (comparative more abortive, superlative most abortive)

more abortive (comparative)
most abortive (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-abortive.wav

First attested in 1382, with the meaning "causing stillbirth or miscarriage". From Middle English abortif, from Old French abortif, from Latin abortīvus (“causing abortion”), from aborior (“miscarry, disappear”), from ab (“amiss”) + orior (“appear, be born, arise”).

abortive medicines

1809, Bartholomew Parr, Medical Dictionary:

Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]

2018 May, Carla Sebastiania, Ludovica Curcioa, Marcella Ciulloa, Deborah Crucianib, Silvia Crottib, Cristina Pescab, Martina Torricellia, Martina Sebastianellia, Andrea Felicic, Massimo Biagetti, “A multi-screening Fast qPCR approach to the identification of abortive agents in ruminants”, in Journal of Microbiological Methods, volume 148, →DOI, page 12:

(medicine, pharmacology, rare) Causing abortion; abortifacient.


abortion

en-noun

abortion (countable and uncountable, plural abortions)

From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort + -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).

surkastuma

fruit/produce that doesn't come to maturity

Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.

It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.

1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 93:

The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China. Her young parents, who worked in a pottery factory in Rongchang in present-day Chongqing municipality, conceived her while unmarried. “They were told by the factory, ‘Have an abortion or be fired’,” she said. They chose to keep her and were fired.

2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-16, Sinosphere:

Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania will resign from Congress after claims that the anti-abortion Republican had urged a woman he was having an extramarital affair with to have an abortion.

2017 October 5, Ben Jacobs, The Guardian:

(medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.

人工妊娠中絶

じんこうにんしんちゅうぜつ


abort

→ Polish: abort

→ Portuguese: abort

From Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior (“miscarry”), formed from ab + orior (“come into being”). Doublet of abortus.

(now rare) The product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion.

In Japonia 'tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abort, which Aristotle commends.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vi:

(obsolete) A miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion.


abort

en-verb

abort (third-person singular simple present aborts, present participle aborting, simple past and past participle aborted)

aborts (present singular third-person)
aborting (participle present)
aborted (participle past)
aborted (past)

From Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri (“miscarry”), from ab- (“not”) + oriri (“come into being, arise, appear”).

(transitive, intransitive) To cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term.

(transitive, biology) To cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation.

keskeyttää kasvu

biology: to cause an organism to develop minimally


month

en-noun

month (plural months or (UK colloquial) month)

months (plural)
month (UK colloquial plural)

From Middle English month, moneth, from Old English mōnaþ (“month”), from Proto-West Germanic *mānōþ, from Proto-Germanic *mēnōþs (“month”), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon, month”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”), referring to the moon's phases as the measure of time, equivalent to moon + -th.
Cognate with Scots moneth (“month”); North Frisian muunt (“month”); Saterland Frisian Mound (“month”), Dutch maand (“month”); German Low German Maand, Monat (“month”); German Monat (“month”); Danish and Norwegian Bokmål måned (“month”); Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish månad (“month”); Icelandic mánuði (“month”); Latin mēnsis (“month”); Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn); Armenian ամիս (amis); Old Irish mí; Old Church Slavonic мѣсѧць (měsęcĭ). See also moon.

der

pinch and a punch for the first of the month

July is my favourite month.

Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

A period into which a year is divided, historically based on the phases of the moon.

We went on holiday for two months.

Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.

1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

With the north London derby to come at the weekend, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp opted to rest many of his key players, although he brought back Aaron Lennon after a month out through injury.

2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:

A period of 30 days, 31 days, or some alternation thereof.

Sckenkius hath two other instances of two melancholy and mad women, so caused from the suppression of their months.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

(obsolete, in the plural) A woman's period; menstrual discharge.


birth

en-verb

birth (third-person singular simple present births, present participle birthing, simple past and past participle birthed)

births (present singular third-person)
birthing (participle present)
birthed (participle past)
birthed (past)

From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).

I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!

1939, Sidney Howard, Ben Hecht, Jo Swerling, John Van Druten, Oliver H.P. Garrett, Gone with the Wind (film):

Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold?
Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat.
Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

She cites some recent examples from the papers: “I birthed two babies in rapid succession”; Beyoncé “birthed her twins”; while somewhere else in the same paper a woman proudly proclaimed: “I birthed a calf!”. She ends: “My objection to the American usage is that it seems to stress rather crudely the muscular process of bringing forth a baby, whereas the graceful British English term ‘to give birth to’ is much more dignified!”

2023 March 5, Jonathan Bouquet, “May I have a word about… being stuck in a permacrisis”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(transitive) To bear or give birth to (a child).


kindle

kindle (third-person singular simple present kindles, present participle kindling, simple past and past participle kindled)

kindles (present singular third-person)
kindling (participle present)
kindled (participle past)
kindled (past)

From Middle English kyndel, from kynde + -el. The verb is derived from the noun form by conversion.

ORLANDO Are you native of this place?
ROSALIND As the cony that you see
dwell where she is kindled.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], lines 344-46:

The poor beast had but lately kindled.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

If she kindled and lost just a few kits and is not bony over her back and hind end, you can rebreed immediately. If she kindled a large litter (more than, say, eight kits), you may wish to wait a week or two before rebreeding so that she can ...

2014, Karen Patry, The Rabbit-Raising Problem Solver, Storey Publishing, →ISBN, page 146:

(intransitive, of a rabbit or hare) To bring forth young; to give birth.


give birth

give birth (third-person singular simple present gives birth, present participle giving birth, simple past gave birth, past participle given birth)

gives birth (present singular third-person)
giving birth (participle present)
gave birth (past)
given birth (participle past)

It was clear that she was about to give birth.

(intransitive, of viviparous animals) To release live offspring from the body into the environment.


bear

bear (third-person singular simple present bears, present participle bearing, simple past bore or (archaic) bare, past participle borne or bore or (see usage notes) born)

bears (present singular third-person)
bearing (participle present)
bore (past)
bare (archaic past)
borne (participle past)
bore (participle past)
born (participle past)
bear (infinitive)

From Middle English beren (“carry, bring forth”), from Old English beran (“to carry, bear, bring”), from Proto-West Germanic *beran, from Proto-Germanic *beraną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti, from *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”).
Akin to Old High German beran (“carry”), Dutch baren, Norwegian Bokmål bære, Norwegian Nynorsk bera, German gebären, Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (bairan), Sanskrit भरति (bharati), Latin ferō, and Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō), Albanian bie (“to bring, to bear”), Russian брать (bratʹ, “to take”), Persian بردن (bordan, “to take, to carry”).

cog

hoz (with the objects gyümölcs and termés)

In Troy she becomes Paris’ wife, bearing him several children, all of whom die in infancy.

The powerful Bene Gesserit sisterhood for ninety generations has been manipulating bloodlines to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a superbeing. On Caladan, Jessica, a member of the sisterhood and the bound concubine of Duke Leto Atreides, had been ordered to bear only daughters. Because of her love for the duke, she disobeyed and gave birth to a son: Paul, Paul Atreides.

1984, 10:44 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), spoken by Princess Irulan, →OCLC:

(transitive, ditransitive) To give birth to (someone or something) (may take the father of the direct object as an indirect object).

This year our apple trees bore a good crop of fruit.

Betwixt two seasons comes th' auspicious air, / This age to blossom, and the next to bear.

(transitive, less commonly intransitive) To produce or yield something, such as fruit or crops.


throw

en-verb

throw (third-person singular simple present throws, present participle throwing, simple past threw or (nonstandard) throwed, past participle thrown or (nonstandard) throwed or (nonstandard) threw)

throws (present singular third-person)
throwing (participle present)
threw (past)
throwed (nonstandard past)
thrown (participle past)
throwed (nonstandard participle past)
threw (nonstandard participle past)
throw (infinitive)

From Middle English throwen, thrawen, from Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrāan, from Proto-Germanic *þrēaną (“to twist, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn”).
Cognate with Scots thraw (“to twist, turn, throw”), West Frisian triuwe (“to push”), Dutch draaien (“to turn”), Low German draien, dreien (“to turn (in a lathe)”), German drehen (“to turn”).
Displaced warp as the word for hurling and was displaced by warp as the word for twisting.

hedh

to cause an object to move rapidly through the air

heitellä

repeatedly, continuously and/or indifferently

people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick

throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick

throw nickels around like manhole covers

throw oneself on someone's mercy not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of

throw one's hotdog down someone's hallway

throw things at the wall and see what sticks

trust someone as far as one could throw them

At the end of the normal gestation period the cow threw two calf mummies as large as cats.

1916, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, volume 49:

They can kid twice a year if things are right, and they often throw twins and triplets.

2008, Monte Dwyer, Red In The Centre: The Australian Bush Through Urban Eyes, Monyer Pty Ltd, page 200:

(transitive, veterinary medicine) Of animals: to give birth to (young).


withdrawal

en-noun

withdrawal (countable and uncountable, plural withdrawals)

deposit

antonym(s) of “receiving from someone's care”

alcohol withdrawal syndrome
benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome
withdrawal

/wɪðˈdɹɔː(ə)l/

/wɪθˈdɹɔː(ə)l/

/ˈwɪθˌdɹɔːl/

/wɪðˈdɹɔːɹəl/

/wɪθˈdɹɔːɹəl/

A method of birth control which consists of removing the penis from the vagina before ejaculation.


labour

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours)

term-label

(British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

From Middle English labor, labour, labur, from Old French labor (modern labeur) and its etymon, Latin labor.

(medicine, obstetrics) The act of a mother giving birth.


French letter

From French + letter. Compare earlier French pox, French-sick (“syphilis”), or later French safe, French tickler (“condom”), or French kiss. Attested from the 19th century.

‘So you’re fifteen – and you know the function of a “French letter”? You are familiar with its use?’
‘I know what it’s for, sir, yes.’

1984, Leslie Thomas, In my Wildest Dreams, page 289:

“I suppose it’s too much to hope that you have a question about gonorrhea. Those questions are so much easier to answer.”[…]
“I was going to ask about what you said earlier. That you’d... that you’d... not used a French letter in eighteen months.”

2012, Courtney Milan, A Kiss for Midwinter, page 80:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated, euphemistic) A condom.


maternal death

en-noun

maternal death (countable and uncountable, plural maternal deaths)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-maternal death.wav

The death of a woman that occurs directly related to the procreative process; obstetric death.


condom

→ Afar: kondom

→ Cantonese: condom, dom

→ Cebuano: kondom

→ Czech: kondom

desctree

→? Danish: kondom
→ Greenlandic: kondomi

→ Dutch: condoom
Indonesian: kondom

→ Finnish: kondomi

→ French: condom

→ German: Kondom

→ Italian: condom

→ Japanese: コンドーム (kondōmu)

→ Korean: 콘돔 (kondom)

→ Macedonian: кондо́м (kondóm)

→ Malay: kondom

→ Norwegian Bokmål: kondom

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: kondom

→ Polish: kondom

desc

→ Russian: кондо́м (kondóm), гондо́н (gondón)

→ Serbo-Croatian: kondom

→ Swahili: kondomu

→ Tagalog: kondom

→ Tok Pisin: kondom

→? Turkish: kondom

Unknown. Many speculations exist. Possibly derived from Italian guantone, from guanto (“a glove”).

buy a pack of condoms

flavoured condom

ribbed condoms

However, substantial proportions of participants preferred the nonlatex condom or reported that they would recommend its use to others.

2009, Albert Altchek, Liane Deligdisch, Pediatric, Adolescent and Young Adult Gynecology:

We're in the small percentage of cases in which condoms are ineffective. Looks as if you have some sort of supersperm. You must be very proud.

2015, Beth Burgoon, About That Night, Don Mills, O.N.: Harlequin Superromance, →ISBN, page 123:

I remember that one time I went to the kiosk next door to buy condoms, it was raining, she appeared.

2021, Pedro Mairal, The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 143:

A flexible sleeve made of latex or other impermeable material such as polyurethane or sheepskin, worn over an erect penis during sexual intercourse as a contraceptive or as a way to prevent the spread of STIs.

(loosely) A flexible sleeve made of latex or other impermeable material such as polyurethane or sheepskin, worn as a barrier between an erect penis and the inner surface of the vagina, anus, or mouth during sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy or the spread of STIs.


accoucheuse

Borrowed from French accoucheuse, female of accoucheur.


accouchement

en-noun

accouchement (countable and uncountable, plural accouchements)

Borrowed from French accouchement, from French accoucher (“to be delivered of a child, to aid in delivery”), from Old French acouchier (“to lay down, put to bed, go to bed”), from Latin ad- + collocare (“to lay, put, place”). See collate.

der

Custom required that the royal family and the whole Court should be present at the accouchement of the Princesses.

The prevalence of the reports contradictory to this supposed legitimacy, rendered it necessary to be more minute, than might in common cases have been requisite, in proving the precise time and place of Lady Jane Douglas's alledged accouchement […]

1763 June, “An account of the law-suit concerning the succession to the late Duke of Douglas, continued”, in The Scots Magazine, volume 25, page 308:

a third was battling with a cat and her brood of kittens for a pair of old boots which she had been pleased to make the seat of her accouchement

1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 156:

A physician was occupied in making an autopsia of a woman dead of puerperal fever, when some one came for him to terminate an accouchement in the town.

1856, St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 14, page 153:


curse

Sranan Tongo: kosi

From Middle English curse, kors, cors, curs, from Old English cors, curs (“curse”), of unknown origin.

unk

unknown

The common curſe of mankinde, Folly and Ignorance[…]

c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.

نِقْمَة

Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

(slang, dated, derogatory, usually with "the") A woman's menses.


curse

en-verb

curse (third-person singular simple present curses, present participle cursing, simple past and past participle cursed or (archaic) curst)

curses (present singular third-person)
cursing (participle present)
cursed (participle past)
cursed (past)
curst (archaic participle past)
curst (archaic past)

Sranan Tongo: kosi

From Middle English cursen, corsen, coursen, from Old English corsian, cursian (“to curse”), from the noun (see above).

better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness

Thou ſhalt not[…]curſe the ruler of thy people.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 22:28, column 1:

To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.

لَعَنَ

to call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon

On Impious Realms, and barb’rous Kings, impoſe / Thy Plagues, and curſe 'em with ſuch Sons as thoſe.

1712 May, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “The First Book of Statius his Thebais”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 29:

To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.


carry

carry (third-person singular simple present carries, present participle carrying, simple past and past participle carried)

carries (present singular third-person)
carrying (participle present)
carried (participle past)
carried (past)

borrow

the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of subtraction

→ Cantonese: carry

From Middle English carrien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin.

tīhei

on the back but held in place with hands

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

one can't carry two watermelons under one arm

to carry a life insurance

A merchant is carrying a large stock. A farm carries a mortgage. A broker carries stock for a customer.

To bear the charges or burden of holding or having, as stocks, merchandise, etc., from one time to another.

Nobody looked like they were carrying, other than those who had knives strapped to their belts, although with Alaska's new concealed-carry permit, available to anyone who trundled themselves down to the local police station to take the class, someone in this crowd could have a rocket launcher stuffed into their boot and she'd never know it.

2001, Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead, →ISBN, page 72:

(intransitive) To have a weapon on one's person; to be armed.


turn

en-verb

turn (third-person singular simple present turns, present participle turning, simple past and past participle turned or (obsolete) turnt)

turns (present singular third-person)
turning (participle present)
turned (participle past)
turned (past)
turnt (obsolete participle past)
turnt (obsolete past)
turn (infinitive)

From Middle English turnen, from Old English turnian, tyrnan (“to turn, rotate, revolve”) and Old French torner (“to turn”), both from Latin tornāre (“to round off, turn in a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “turning-lathe: a tool used for making circles”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by turning, turn, twist, bore”). Cognate with Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist, wind”), whence English throw. Displaced native Middle English wenden from Old English wendan (see wend), and Middle English trenden from Old English trendan (see trend), among several other terms.

lyödä kierre

in cricket, make the ball move sideways when it bounces

kiertää

of a cricket ball, move sideways when it bounces

-ul

e.g. “turn yellow”: sárga → sárgul, “turn brown”: barna → barnul

(obstetrics) To bring down the feet of a child in the womb, in order to facilitate delivery.

kääntää

obstetrics: bring down the feet of a child in the womb, in order to facilitate delivery


rubber

(sports, Canada, US) A rubber match; a game or match played to break a tie.

"Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I have not had my rubber." "I think you will find that you will play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and that the play will be more exciting."

1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League:


fall pregnant

en-verb

fall pregnant (third-person singular simple present falls pregnant, present participle falling pregnant, simple past fell pregnant, past participle fallen pregnant)

falls pregnant (present singular third-person)
falling pregnant (participle present)
fell pregnant (past)
fallen pregnant (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fall pregnant.wav

We were delighted when I fell pregnant with my first son.

(intransitive, formal or literary) To become pregnant.

懷孕 /怀孕

typically with 了 (le) to mark the change of state


C-section

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-C-section.wav

2011. San Francisco Chronicle
"C-section not necessarily end to vaginal delivery"

Caesarean section
Caesarean section#English


Caesarean

Shortening of Caesarean section; see also Caesarean section § Etymology.


Caesarean section

en-noun

Caesarean section (countable and uncountable, plural Caesarean sections)

Likely corruption of the Latin phrase a caesō mātris uterō (“[born] from a cut in the mother’s womb”), supposedly the origin of Caesar's name. More at Caesar, at caedō, and at Caesarean section § Etymology.

Delivery of a baby through an incision in the womb.

帝王切開

ていおうせっかい teiōsekkai


period

frequency

antonym(s) of “length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon”

/ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/

From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, an interval of time, path around”), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”). Displaced native Middle English tide (“interval, period, season”), from Old English tīd (“time, period, season”), as well as Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).

periudhë

history: period of time seen as coherent entity

periodike

length of time during which something repeats

When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.

(euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this.

The set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.


period

en-verb

period (third-person singular simple present periods, present participle perioding, simple past and past participle perioded)

periods (present singular third-person)
perioding (participle present)
perioded (participle past)
perioded (past)

/ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/

(colloquial) To menstruate; to excrete menstrual blood.


placenta

en-noun

placenta (plural placentae or placentas)

Elision for phrases such as New Latin placenta uterī (“womb cake”), placenta uterina (“uterine cake”), from Latin placenta (“flat cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth.

(anatomy) An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.

(botany) In flowering plants, the part of the ovary where ovules develop; in non-flowering plants where the spores develop.


quicken

en-verb

quicken (third-person singular simple present quickens, present participle quickening, simple past and past participle quickened)

quickens (present singular third-person)
quickening (participle present)
quickened (participle past)
quickened (past)

From Middle English quikenen (“to become alive again after dying; to raise (someone) from the dead; to regain consciousness or strength; to give vitality, revive; to regain validity; to nourish; to spare (the life of someone or something); to ignite; to illuminate; of events: to happen more quickly; of clouds: to form”) [and other forms], from quiken (“to come to life; to become alive again after dying; to give or regain vitality, revive; of a seed: to germinate, grow; to arouse (anger); to inspire; to reinforce, strengthen; to make (a substance) alchemically active; to nourish, sustain; to sharpen; to ignite; to illuminate; of news: to spread”) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive forms of verbs). Quiken is derived from Old English cwician (“to bring to life, vivify; to come to life, become living; to quicken”), from cwic (“alive, live, living; mentally agile; intelligent, keen”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive; lively; quick”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)) + -ian (suffix forming verbs from adjectives and nouns). The English word may be analysed as quick (“moving with swiftness; occurring in a short time; (archaic) alive, living; (archaic) pregnant”) + -en (suffix attached to some adjectives forming transitive verbs meaning ‘to make [adjective]’).
cognates
* Danish kvikne (“to quicken, revive”)
* Icelandic kvikna (“to ignite; to turn on”)
* Swedish kvickna (“to revive”)

nb...

quecken, queken, quekenen, quicken, quickene, quickenen, quickin, quicknen, quicnen, quiken, quikene, quikken, quikkenen, quikkin, quikne, quiknen, quikyn, quycken, quyken, quykene, quykken, quykne, quykyn, qweken, qwekyn, qwicken, qwiken, qwikken, qwikkin, qwikyn, qwycken, qwyken, qwykken, qwykkyn, qwykyn, qwyykne, (Northern England) qwhikken, qwhykkyn, whiken, whikken

suffix

suffix attached to some adjectives forming transitive verbs meaning ‘to make 􂀿adjective􂁀’

cog

[…] she
Quickened the fire and laid the board, […]

1870, William Morris, “December: The Fostering of Aslaug”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 75:

Was it alight once? Still lives spark enough
For breath to quicken, run the smouldering ash
Red right through.

1887, Robert Browning, “With Charles Avison”, in Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day: […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 210:

Senses relating to life or states of activity.

(archaic) To make or help (something) to burn.


fetus

en-noun

fetus (plural fetuses or fetus or (hypercorrect) feti or (misconstructed) fetii)

tlb

(American spelling, also Canada, Australia)

fetuses (plural)
fetus (plural)
feti (hypercorrect plural)
fetii (misconstruction plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin fētus (“offspring”). Doublet of fawn.

lbor

Several feti were removed from every rats' uterus, stripped of their membranes and allowed to lie in the peritoneal cavity connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord and with the placenta still attached to the uterine wall.

1963, John W Choate, Henry A. Thiede, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Transcript, Volume 2

An unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal.

fetus

an unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal

The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.

A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.

The real essence of that or any other sort of substances, it is evident, we know not; and therefore are so undetermined in our nominal essences, which we make ourselves, that, if several men were to be asked concerning some oddly-shaped fœtus, as soon as born, whether it were a man or no, it is past doubt one should meet with different answers.

1959 [1689], John Locke, chapter 6, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 2, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., page 77:


sheath

From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).
The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.

nb...

chethe, scǽð, scaþ, schede, schete, scheth, schethe, seaþ, seeth, seth, sethe, shæþ, shede, sheethe, sheith, (Southwest) ssethe, sseþe, (early forms) scæðe, scaþe, seaþe

der

(zoology) The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).


pad

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", probably from Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

unk

probably

The mostly hairless flesh located on the bottom of an animal's foot or paw.

възглавничка на животинска лапа

(colloquial) A small house, apartment, or mobile home occupied by a single person; such as a bachelor, playboy, etc.


sponge

en-noun

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)

→ Hindi: स्पंज (spañj)

→ Japanese: スポンジ (suponji)

→ Korean: 스펀지 (seupeonji)

→ Pashto: سپنج (spanj)

→ Welsh: spynj

→ Malay: span

From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).

(countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.


diaphragm

/ˈdaɪəˌfɹæm/

From Ancient Greek διάφραγμα (diáphragma, “partition”), from διά (diá, “across”) and φράγμα (phrágma, “barrier”), from the verb φράσσω (phrássō).

мембра́на

anatomy: separating membrane or sheet of muscle

A contraceptive device consisting of a flexible cup, used to cover the cervix during intercourse.


delivery

en-noun

delivery (countable and uncountable, plural deliveries)

From Middle English deliveri et al., from Anglo-Norman, from Old French delivrer.

(genetics) Process of introducing foreign DNA into host cells.


with child

Replaced earlier mid child. Compare Danish and Swedish med barn.

I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

[N]othing vvas more frightful to me than his Careſſes, and the Apprehenſions of being vvith Child again by him, vvas ready to throvv me into Fits; […]

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 118:

I should have had two children, but I find myself with only one. Yet he spends his time with other women who are already with child.

1999, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, Zulu Woman:


gravid

en-adj

gravid (comparative more gravid, superlative most gravid)

more gravid (comparative)
most gravid (superlative)

From Latin gravidus (“laden, pregnant”), from gravis (“heavy”).

In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.

1921, Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus:

The gravest problems of obstetrics and forensic medicine were examined with as much animation as the most popular beliefs on the state of pregnancy such as the forbidding to a gravid woman to step over a country stile lest, by her movement, the navelcord should strangle her creature

1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

One slender hand was raised in a graceful gesture gravid with meaning.

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 345:

The minute she'd settled into the seat next to him, her billowing widow's rig had got redisposed to reveal her neatly gravid waistline, at which, now, he nodded.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Bilocations”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 507:

(of egglaying animals, now chiefly figuratively) Pregnant.

հղի

pregnant (now used chiefly of egg-laying animals, or metaphorically)


breech

en-noun

breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)

From Middle English breche, from Old English brēċ, from Proto-Germanic *brōkiz pl, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Alemannic German Bruech, Swedish brok. Doublet of vraka.


breech

(obstetrics, of birth) With the hips coming out before the head.


breech

(obstetrics) Born, or having been born, breech.


gestation

en-noun

gestation (countable and uncountable, plural gestations)

/d͡ʒɛsˈteɪʃən/

The period of time during which an animal or human offspring physically develops inside the mother's body until it is born.

xestación

period of time a fetus develops inside mother's body — see also pregnancy


insemination

insemination (countable and uncountable, plural inseminations)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-insemination.wav

At the same time there is no fantasy, as there is in the teleportage of science fiction, or in the Greek myth that requires the insemination of a woman by a swan.

2010, Jeffrey Boss, Human Consciousness of God in the Book of Job, page 158:

The introduction of sperm into a female’s reproductive system for the purpose of impregnating (making pregnant).

تَخْصِيب

introduction of sperm into a female's reproductive system


glans

Learned borrowing from Latin glāns (“acorn”).

حَشَفَة

structure at the extremity of the penis and of the clitoris


prenatal

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A person who is expecting to give birth.

She was recommended a course of zinc prenatals.

A dietary supplement to be taken by somebody expecting to give birth.


prophylactic

en-adj

prophylactic (comparative more prophylactic, superlative most prophylactic)

more prophylactic (comparative)
most prophylactic (superlative)

From Latin, from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis, “a watching, guarding”).

Serving to prevent or protect against an undesired effect, especially disease or pregnancy


unborn

en-noun

unborn (countable and uncountable, plural unborns)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-unborn.wav

From Middle English unborn, from Old English unboren, from Proto-Germanic *unburanaz. Equivalent to un- + born.

Whereas the lack of a child brings shame upon Anna and Joachim, the converse holds true for Mary: the existence of an unborn in the womb of a woman who is supposed to be a virgin causes great scandal.

2009, Catherine Playoust, Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, “The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature”, in Vanessa R. Sasson, Jane Marie Law, editors, Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 176:

(countable) A single unborn offspring at any stage of gestation.


conceive

en-verb

conceive (third-person singular simple present conceives, present participle conceiving, simple past and past participle conceived)

conceives (present singular third-person)
conceiving (participle present)
conceived (participle past)
conceived (past)

From Middle English conceyven, from Old French concevoir, conceveir, from Latin concipiō, concipere (“to devise, to conceive”).

der

Can you conceive of him as a leader?

We shall, / As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount / Before you, Lepidus.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals), page 4:

[…]you will hardly conceive him to have been bred in the ſame Climate […]

1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page lxii:

Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Remember, if you please, that the man you call slave sprang from the same seed, enjoys the same daylight, breathes like you, lives like you, dies like you. You can as easily conceive him a free man as he can conceive you a slave.

2008 [c. 65 CE], Seneca the Younger, “Letter on Slaves”, in Andrew Bailey et al., editors, The Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought, volume 1, →ISBN, page 258:

(transitive, intransitive with of, ditransitive) To imagine (as); to have a conception of; to form a representation of.


gynaecology

en-noun

gynaecology (usually uncountable, plural gynaecologies)


childbirth

childbirth (usually uncountable, plural childbirths)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-childbirth.wav

From Middle English childbyrth [and other forms], perhaps a partial calque of Old Norse barnburðr (“childbearing, childbirth”, literally “bairn birth”); equivalent to child + birth. Compare Swedish barnsbörd (“childbirth”), Icelandic barnsburður (“childbirth”).

der

The fact or action of giving birth to a child, as the culmination of pregnancy.


protection

en-noun

protection (countable and uncountable, plural protections)

/pɹəˈtɛkʃən/

From Middle English, from Old French, from stem of Late Latin prōtectiō (“a covering over”), from Latin prōtēctus, perfect passive participle of prōtegere (“to protect, cover in front”). Displaced native Old English ġesċildnes.

der

A means, such as a condom, of preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease.


pregnant

en-adj

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

more pregnant (comparative)
most pregnant (superlative)

Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).

Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:


birth control

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birth control
en:Comstock Law
en:Margaret Sanger
en:The Woman Rebel

Margaret Sanger coined the term "birth control" in 1914, using it in the July 1914 issue of The Woman Rebel, and was criminally indicted for it in August 1914, under the Comstock Law for obscenity in print.

Voluntary control of the number of children conceived, especially by the planned use of contraception.

izeeʼ bichįʼ doo ichį́į́ dahí

voluntary control of the number of children conceived

BC

BC; birth control; US Navy standard issue eyeglass frames euphemistically referred to as or due to their unattractiveness

Any technique used to prevent the birth of a child (such as abortion or preventing conception).


expect

en-verb

expect (third-person singular simple present expects, present participle expecting, simple past and past participle expected)

expects (present singular third-person)
expecting (participle present)
expected (participle past)
expected (past)

From Latin expectāre, infinitive form of exspectō (“look out for, await, expect”), from ex (“out”) + spectō (“look at”), frequentative of speciō (“see”).

when you least expect it

I expect to be able to walk again after getting over my broken leg.

He never expected to be discovered.

We ended up waiting a little longer than we had expected

The doctor said he expected me to make a full recovery.

“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

And temperatures are expected to keep rising.

2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns:

(transitive, intransitive) To predict or believe that something will happen

تَوَقَّعَ

to look for, look forward to, anticipate

England expects that every man will do his duty.

1805, Nelson, Horatio via Pasco, John, signal sent at the Battle of Trafalgar

I was born and immediately thrown into a society that makes its own rules, standards, and expectations. I am expected to behave. I am expected to deliver. I am expected to live up to the contrived standards of the society.

2015, Sajith Buvi, I Am 7.5 Billion Human, page 49:

You are expected to get the task done by the end of next week.

“You are pregnant?” he asked with shock in his voice. “Yes, Justin, I am expecting a child,”

2011, Eva Fischer-Dixon, The Bestseller:

(continuous aspect only, of a woman or couple) To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.


pregnancy

en-noun

pregnancy (countable and uncountable, plural pregnancies)

pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy

The period of time this condition prevails.


CVS

CVS (countable and uncountable, plural CVSs)

chorionic villus sampling
chorionic villus sampling#English

(obstetrics, pathology) Initialism of chorionic villus sampling.


hysterectomy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hysterectomy.wav

she even contemplated having her womb taken out to eliminate periods altogether, which would surely be her greatest possible career move, a tactical hysterectomy for ambitious women with menstruation problems

2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 140:

(surgery) The surgical procedure to remove all of or part of the uterus.

histerectomia

surgical removal of the uterus or part thereof


emmenagogue

From Ancient Greek ἔμμηνα (émmēna, “menses”) + ἀγωγός (agōgós, “leading”).

Take of the emmenagogue decoction, six ounces; borax, fifteen grains; troches of myrrh, two scruples; dittany of Crete, finely powdered, ten grains; […]

1775, The practice of the British and French hospitals:

The term emmenagogue is applied to any remedy or indeed any resource whatever which normalizes the menses.

1914, Albert Henry Buck, A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences:

Because of its phenolic ether content (methyl chavicol), which varies within wide limits, depending on the species, the origin and the time of harvesting, basil is often cited as an emmenagogue.

2007, Shirley Price, Aromatherapy for Health Professionals, page 71:

(medicine) An herb that stimulates blood flow in the pelvic area and uterus, causing menstruation.


preggers

Michael's troubles may be over soon, except that Christal claims to be preggers with triplets.

2007-07-14, Kyrie O'Connor, “Bluff the Listener”, in Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, National Public Radio:

(informal) Pregnant; carrying developing offspring within one's body.


PMS

PMS (countable and uncountable, plural PMSs)

Coordinate term: PMDD

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) takes a lot of bashing in the media. It is true that many women become more aggressive during this period, though they are rarely out of control...Therefore, any PMS symptoms that are perceived as unstable are due to the fact that women act more like men during this phase than at any other time in their cycles.

1951, Edain McCoy, Celtic Women's Spirituality:

By recognising PMS as a clinical entity women are allowed to Indulge In socially disapproved behaviours, and thus have a safety valve for their resentment.

1980, British Social Biology Council, Social Biology and Human Affairs:

Holden, Banky, this pile of PMS is Alyssa Jones.

1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Hooper:

By internalizing ideational valuations of PMS, men and women reinforce the appearance of a psychosomatic constitution of PMS.

2006, Kristen Brown, Nietzsche And Embodiment: Discerning Bodies and Non-Dualism:

This is called premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. It is not well defined, and more than 100 different symptoms have been attributed to PMS

2006, Phyllis Greenberger, Jennifer Wider, editors, The Savvy Woman Patient: How and Why Sex Difference Affect Your Health:

premenstrual syndrome
premenstrual syndrome#English

(medicine, uncountable) Initialism of premenstrual syndrome or premenstrual stress.

package management system
package management system#English

(computing, countable) Initialism of package management system.

PMS: Performance-management system

2006, Organisation for Economic Co-operation, “Survey on Harmonisation and Alignment of Donor Practices: Measuring Aid Harmonisation and Alignment in 14 Partner Countries”, in Development, list of acronyms:

performance management system
performance management system#English

Initialism of performance management system.

A more comprehensive system now being marketed by IBM, PMS (Project Management System), includes resource allocation.

1971, Boyd C. Paulson, Man-computer Concepts for Project Management:

Mr. Tiernan. ...You have [a chart of] performance based on average design and construction performance before PMS. What is PMS? Mr. Starobin. Project Management System.

1974, United States. Congress. House. Appropriations, District of Columbia Appropriations for 1974:

We see many changes needed, and IS/IT solutions include executive information system (ElS), project management system (PMS), research library system (RLS), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resources planning (ERP), electronic market places (EMS), and knowledge management system (KMS).

2006, Petter Gottschalk, E-Business Strategy, Sourcing And Governance:

project management system
w:project management system

Initialism of project management system.


PMS

en-verb

PMS (third-person singular simple present PMSes, present participle PMSing, simple past and past participle PMSed)

PMSes (present singular third-person)
PMSing (participle present)
PMSed (participle past)
PMSed (past)

Clarice raised an eyebrow. “I think I'm getting my period, so there's no guarantees it won't happen again.”.[…]“I'm feeling a little PMSed myself. Let's take it out on the cops next time.” “Deal.” Clarice smiled, feeling in control once more.

2019, Henry Roi, With Her Fists, Next Chapter:

premenstrual syndrome
premenstrual syndrome

(informal, intransitive) To experience premenstrual syndrome or premenstrual stress.


PMS

(astronomy, of a star) Initialism of pre-main sequence.


up the duff

Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.

Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).

1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

“Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden)[…].”

1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:

It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 191:

The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone[…].

2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.


PBA

partial-birth abortion
partial-birth abortion#English


obstetric

From Medical Latin obstetricus (“belonging to a midwife”), from Latin obstētrīx (“midwife”).

bor

obstetric clinic

For Wenham, the most striking statistic from Sierra Leone, one of the countries worst affected by Ebola, was that from 2013 to 2016, during the outbreak, more women died of obstetric complications than the infectious disease itself.

2020 March 19, Helen Lewis, “The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism”, in The Atlantic:

Of or relating to obstetrics (the care of women during and after pregnancy).


obstetrics

Coordinate term: gynecology

(medicine) The care of women during and after pregnancy.


amniotic fluid embolism

en-noun

amniotic fluid embolism (plural amniotic fluid embolisms)

(pathology) A complication of pregnancy characterized by movement of amniotic fluid past the placenta


knock up

en-verb

knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up)

knocks up (present singular third-person)
knocking up (participle present)
knocked up (participle past)
knocked up (past)

I guess his summer plans are shot now that he knocked his girlfriend up.

“And how many other girls has he knocked up?” “Would you keep your voice down? Mom's home.” She pressed her hands to her head. “I just don't understand how you could ditch Rowan and get knocked up by Scott, like, right away.”

2015, Jaime Loren, Waiting for April, Pan, →ISBN:

(slang, chiefly US) To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up.


on the rag

From rag as a slang term for a menstrual pad. First use appears c. 1967. See cite below.

She herself had begun menstruation shortly after her eleventh birthday and had gone to the head of the stairs to yell down excitedly: "Hey, Mum, I'm on the rag!"

Harold: How is Sarah? I don't want to jump her while she's on the rag.

(idiomatic, vulgar, slang, sometimes euphemistic) Menstruating.


menarche

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-menarche.wav

First attested 1900, from German Menarche, formed from meno- + -arche.

How old is she? Nine? Ten? The menarche is not far off – a hint of a bosom, poor child.

The most potent and indeed dangerous of all menstrual blood was the menarche, the first day's flow of the first menstruation of a virgin girl.

1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 252:

Initiation is imagined, but the initiate is not the young girl in menarche, about to be wed to the moon, but a young man about to become a great hunter.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:

The onset of menstruation; a girl's first period.


menstruate

menstruate (third-person singular simple present menstruates, present participle menstruating, simple past and past participle menstruated)

menstruates (present singular third-person)
menstruating (participle present)
menstruated (participle past)
menstruated (past)

From menstruum + -ate (verb-forming suffix); sense 2 (“to undergo menstruation”) is possibly a back-formation from menstruation.

(transitive, obsolete, rare) To stain with or as if with menses.

A woman may have every quality or attribute of marriageableness who menstruates irregularly, or rarely, or even who has never menstruated at all.

1884, The Medical Age, volume 2, page 358:

Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".

1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:

Fortunately, there’s early signs of a “wokelash” from institutions that won’t cower to this nonsense. When staff at publisher Hachette threatened to down tools because they regarded JK Rowling as a toxic transphobe for a tweet mocking “people” who menstruate instead of “women”, management pushed back saying they couldn’t refuse to work on a book because they disagree with the author’s views.

2021 November 20, Angela Mollard, “Gen Z cancelling musical Grease is disappointing”, in The Daily Telegraph, Surrey Hills, N.S.W:

(intransitive) To undergo menstruation, to have a period.


menstruate

From menstruum + -ate (adjective-forming usffix).


menstruation

en-noun

menstruation (countable and uncountable, plural menstruations)

/ˌmɛnstɹʊˈeɪʃən/

From menstruum + -ation, modelled after Late Latin menstruatio. The word is cognate with French menstruation, Spanish menstruación, displaced Old English mōnaþblōd (literally “monthblood”)).

inh

An instance of menstruation, the part of each month during which a fertile woman menstruates.


menopause

en-noun

menopause (countable and uncountable, plural menopauses)

From French ménopause, from Latin menopausis, from Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn, “month”) + παῦσις (paûsis, “pause”). Equivalent to meno- + -pause.

The final menstrual period of a woman after which ovulation no longer occurs.


contraceptive

en-adj

contraceptive (comparative more contraceptive, superlative most contraceptive)

more contraceptive (comparative)
most contraceptive (superlative)

Coined in the 20th century from contra- + conceptive; compare the related contraception.

She was careful to take her contraceptive pill at the same time every day.

This has led to the selection of 4-guanidinobenzoates with either acetamenophen or ethylparaben as the phenol moiety for clinical evaluation, because they are orders of magnitude more contraceptive than nonoxynol-9 and less irritating to the vagina.

1994, P. F. A. Van Look, Gregorio Pérez-Palacios, World Health Organization, Contraceptive Research and Development, 1984-1994: The Road from Mexico City to Cairo and Beyond:

That acts to prevent conception as a result of sexual intercourse.


contraceptive

Putting a pig's bladder over one's penis before intercourse is not a good contraceptive.

The document covers the following family planning methods: combined oral contraceptives (COCs), combined injectable contraceptives (CICs), progestogen-only pills (POPs), depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), norethisterone enantate (NET-EN), levonorgestrel implants, emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), copper-bearing interuterine devices, levonorgestrel-releasing interuterine devices (LNG IUDs), fertility awareness-based methods, and sterilization.

2004, Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, 2nd edition, World Health Organization:

A mechanism or means by which conception as a result of sexual intercourse can be prevented or made less likely.

супрацьзача́ткавы сро́дак

means by which impregnating a woman can be prevented


vasectomy

From vas (short for vas deferens) + -ectomy (“surgery involving the excision or removal of a body part”).

af

short for <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">vas deferens</i>

Coordinate term: tubal ligation (analogous procedure for female anatomy)

The experimental vasectomy operation was performed under sodium pentobarbital (50 mg/kg body weight, i.p) anesthesia via a lower midabdominal incision as described elsewhere.

2015 July 10, “Abnormal Accumulation of Collagen Type I Due to the Loss of Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 (Ddr2) Promotes Testicular Interstitial Dysfunction”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

In fact, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., so many men sign up for vasectomies during March Madness that appointments reach “max capacity,” said Dr. Tobias S. Kohler, a urologist and men’s health expert at the medical center who has observed this phenomenon ever since he was an attending physician a decade ago.

2019 March 28, Christina Caron, “Why Don’t More American Men Get Vasectomies?”, in The New York Times:

Middle-aged, married fathers make up the bulk of those who have gotten vasectomies, with less than two percent of unmarried men relying on vasectomy for contraception, according to one analysis of data between 2002 and 2015 by the Department of Health and Human Services.

2022 August 12, Alisha Haridasani Gupta, “‘Snip Snip Hooray’: Vasectomies Among the Young and Child-Free May Be Rising”, in The New York Times:

(surgery) The surgical incision of all or part of the vas deferens as a means of male sterilization.


morning-after pill

en-noun

morning-after pill (plural morning-after pills)

Dr. Morris and his colleagues have reported on one experimental compound designed specifically to be a morning-after pill.

1967 October 7, “Estrogens' Double Life”, in Science News, volume 92, number 15, →JSTOR, page 343:

These policy efforts confuse the public into thinking that the morning-after pill, which is simply a super-dose of the regular pill, is the same as mifepristone, the abortion pill.

2010 October 12, Faith Agostinone-Wilson, Marxism and Education Beyond Identity: Sexuality and Schooling, Palgrave Macmillan, page 172:

Even after a girl has sex, it's not too late to prevent her from dropping an egg. That's what the morning-after pill does.

2013 March 5, Bronwen Pardes, Doing It Right: Making Smart, Safe, and Satisfying Choices About Sex, →ISBN:

A federal judge on Friday ordered that the most common morning-after pill be made available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger.

2013 April 15, Pam Belluck, “Judge Strikes Down Age Limits on Morning-After Pill”, in The New York Times:

A contraceptive in the form of a pill taken shortly after sexual intercourse.


bleeding

bleeding (countable and uncountable, plural bleedings)

Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.

1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 24:


umbilical cord

(anatomy) The flexible structure connecting a foetus with the placenta; it transports nourishment to the foetus and removes waste.


pill

* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula.
* (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.

Jane went on the pill when she left for college.

She got pregnant one month after going off the pill.

I'm tearing down your brooder house / 'Cause now I've got the pill

1975, “The Pill”, in Back to the Country, performed by Loretta Lynn:

Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.

1986, Jurriaan Plesman, Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:

(informal, uncountable, definite, i.e. used with "the") Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.


episiotomy

/ˌɛpəsaɪˈɒtəmiː/

From episio- + -tomy (“surgical incision”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσιον (epísion, “pubic region”) + τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”)).

der

The following eight hours were the worst of my life that haven't ended in an episiotomy.

(medicine) A surgical incision through the perineum made to enlarge the vagina and assist childbirth.


multiparous

It is not denied there have been bicipitous Serpents with the head at each extream, for an example hereof we finde in Aristotle, and of the like form in Aldrovandus we meet with the Icon of a Lizzard; which double formations do often happen unto multiparous generations, more especially that of Serpents […]

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

Producing several offspring at one time.


breech birth

A birth in which the baby comes through the birth canal posterior (buttocks), feet, or knees first, instead of the more usual position of headfirst.

臀位分娩

birth in which the fetus comes feet or knees first


loop

From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.

(biochemistry) A flexible region in a protein's secondary structure.


midwife

From Middle English midwif, corresponding to mid (“with”) + wif (“woman, wife, female”). It appears not to be entirely clear whether the original understanding was “with-woman” in the sense of “attending/assisting woman”, or “they who are with the woman” (namely the mother).

促成者

person who assists in bringing something about

A hundred years ago, a midwife would bring the baby into the world - going to a hospital to deliver a baby was either impossible or unheard of.

The senior midwife confirmed that […] occasionally a multigravid woman could feel little more than slight abdominal discomfort.

2009, Jennifer Worth, Farewell to the East End, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, page 235:

Despite Richard's efforts to midwive his own narrative of legitimacy, the source of this legendary one cannot be controlled because it has moved from the mouths of nurses, midwives and gossips into the public domain.

2017, Caroline Bicks, Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England, page 123:

(obstetrics) A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.


stillborn

From English still + born. First attested in 1597.

This, gentlemen, is a list of the joint-stock companies created last year. . . . Of these some were stillborn, but the majority hold the market.

1859, Charles Reade, chapter 11, in Love Me Little, Love Me Long:

His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.

1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in The Highgrader:

(figuratively, by extension) Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.

doodgeboren

ignored, without influence, unsuccessful, abortive


scumbag

From scum + bag; first use appears c. 1967.

Can you believe that scumbag Steve asked to sleep with her before even asking her name?

Monroney was variously described as a "scumbag," "SOB," "Snake," "dead sheep," [...] and assorted unprintable adjectives.

1953 July 19, Allen Cromley, “Report from Washington”, in The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK, page 1:

(informal, mildly vulgar) A sleazy, disreputable or despicable person; lowlife.


scrape

en-noun

scrape (countable and uncountable, plural scrapes)

From Middle English scrapen, from Old Norse skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”) and Old English scrapian (“to scrape, scratch”), both from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- (“to engrave”).
Cognate with Dutch schrapen (“to scrape”), schrappen (“to strike through; to cancel; to scrap”), schrabben (“to scratch”), German schrappen (“to scrape”), Danish skrabe (“to scrape”), Icelandic skrapa (“to scrape”), Walloon screper (“to scrape”), Latin scribō (“dig with a pen, draw, write”).

cog

1972, in U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, United States Government Printing Office, page 127,
It’s quite possible, in view of the diagnosis ‘danger of miscarriage’, that they might drag me off, give me a scrape and then say that the miscarriage began itself.

In expert hands abortion nowadays is almost the same as having a scrape (D & C) and due to improved techniques such as suction termination, and improved lighter anaesthetic, most women feel no worse than having a tooth out.

1980, John Cobb, Babyshock: A Mother’s First Five Years, Hutchinson, page 232:

The loss is significant to the woman and will be stated as such by her. For her it is not “nothing,” “just a scrape,” or “not a life.” It is the beginning of a baby. Years later, she may recall it not just as a miscarriage but also as a baby that was lost.

1985, Beverley Raphael, The Anatomy of Bereavement: a handbook for the caring professions, Routledge,, →ISBN, page 236:

17.Have you had a scrape or curettage recently?

1999, David Jenkins, Listening to Gynaecological Patients\ Problems, Springer,, →ISBN, page 16:

(British, slang) A D and C or abortion; or, a miscarriage.


get into trouble

en-verb

get into trouble (third-person singular simple present gets into trouble, present participle getting into trouble, simple past got into trouble, past participle (UK) got into trouble or (US) gotten into trouble)

gets into trouble (present singular third-person)
getting into trouble (participle present)
got into trouble (past)
got into trouble (UK participle past)
gotten into trouble (US participle past)

You'll get us all into trouble if you don't keep quiet.


Tom

→ Tokelauan: Toma

From Middle English Thomme. Hypocorism of Thomas.

Poor Tom's a-cold.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

"Good,—that's a whack. What's your name?"
"Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer."
"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me Tom, will you?"

1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 70:

What I'm worrying about is what Tom says when he starts talking."
"Uncle Tom?"
"I wish there was something else you could call him except 'Uncle Tom'," said Aunt Dahlia a little testily. "Every time you do it, I expect to see him turn black and start playing the banjo."

1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves:

"We're not sure - we were expecting a girl for some reason. But we're thinking of something simple like Tom."
"Thomas?"
"No, just Tom."

2008, David Park, The Truth Commissioner, →ISBN, page 366:

A diminutive of the male given name Thomas, also used as a formal male given name.


jimmy

*
* (chocolate sprinkles): Unknown. There is much speculation that they were named after Jim Crow, but there is little, if any, evidence to support this theory.

(US) A jemmy; a crowbar used by burglars to open windows and doors.

(slang, Royal Navy) First Lieutenant (Executive Officer)


johnny

Alternative letter-case form of Johnny, diminutive of John.

toilet

place or device for urination and defecation

His hand shook. A little water spilled down the front of the hospital johnny Sean wore.

(New England) A hospital gown: a gown with a back opening closed with snaps or ties, worn by hospital patients.

The women's toilet (as distinguished from the ladies' room in a speakeasy, the johnny at school, the little girls' room at a party in an apartment, and the wash-my-hands on a train) was clean enough.

1935, John O'Hara, BUtterfield 8, Ch. ix, page 279

Kitty Hofman came in the johnny.

1935, John O'Hara, chapter IV, in Appointment in Samarra, page 98:

(US, slang, dated) Synonym of john: a toilet, lavatory, outhouse, or chamber pot.

john

[H]e declared, like a real Irishman, that 'if he were a living man when he died, he would not give a single johnny of whisky either at his wake or his funeral.'

1867, William Dool Killen, Memoir of John Edgar, page 108:

(Ireland, slang, archaic) A half-glass of whisky.


conception

en-noun

conception (countable and uncountable, plural conceptions)

From Middle English concepcioun, borrowed from Old French conception, from Latin conceptiō (“a comprehending, a collection, composition, an expression, also a becoming pregnant”), from concipiō, past participle conceptus (“conceive”); see conceive.


spermicidal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spermicidal.wav

By surface analysis, sperm + -i- + -cide + -al.


mooncalf

From moon + calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development.

Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

(now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception.


midwifery

en-noun

midwifery (countable and uncountable, plural midwiferies)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-midwifery.wav

From Middle English medewifry; equivalent to midwife + -ery.

The practice and science of being a midwife.

قَبَالَة

the practice and science of being a midwife


IUD

IUD (countable and uncountable, plural IUDs)

The Philippine sense is due to the streetfood being reminiscent of an intrauterine device.

(Philippines, informal) barbecued chicken intestine, sold as street food


sanitary napkin

sanitary napkin (plural sanitary napkins)

(chiefly US, Philippines) Synonym of menstrual pad: a pad of absorbent material used to absorb menstrual flow.


sanitary towel

(UK) Standard form of sanitary napkin: a pad of absorbent material used to absorb menstrual flow.


antenatal

From Latin ante (“before”) + Latin nātālis (“natal”), from nāscor (“to be born”), equivalent to ante- + natal.


abortus

Borrowed from New Latin abortus (“miscarriage”). Doublet of abort.

bor+

An aborted fetus, especially one aborted in early pregnancy.


anti-abortion

en-adj

anti-abortion (comparative more anti-abortion, superlative most anti-abortion)

more anti-abortion (comparative)
most anti-abortion (superlative)


tampon

First attested in 1848. Borrowed from French tampon, from Middle French tampon, a nasalised variant of tapon, a diminutive or augmented form of Old French tape (“plug, bung, tap”), from Frankish *tappō (“stopper, plug”), from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug, tap”). Cognate with Old High German zapfo (“stopper”), Old English tæppa (“stopper”). Doublet of tampion. More at tap.

The only apparent difference between Playtex deodorant and nondeodorant tampons was the deodorant, yet the deodorant tampons did not stimulate the production of TSST-1.

1987, Amy C Lee Wong, Factors affecting growth of Staphylococcus aureus and production of toxic shock syndrome-1:

I examined a tampon, from the outside only without removing the wrapper because I did not want to waste one, and considered aloud the consequences of pushing the offensively shaped object into my vagina.

1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 145:

A plug of cotton or other absorbent material inserted into a body cavity or wound to absorb fluid, especially one inserted in the vagina during menstruation.

tampon

a plug of cotton or other absorbent material

(most common translation) 衛生棉條 /卫生棉条 (wèishēng miántiáo)

(alternative translations) 止血栓 (zhǐxuèshuān)

vampire's teabag

intravaginal plug used to absorb menstrual blood


dinger

The starting pitcher gave up three dingers.

He should know, he fanned 2597 times — far more than any other man — but made millions hitting 563 dingers.

1989 June, John Holway, “Strikeouts: The High Cost of Hitting Home Runs”, in Baseball Digest:

Then as you're taking his picture, say something about the thirty dingers he's going to hit this season. You get that little extra smile on his face.

1997, Hank Davis, Small-Town Heroes: Images of Minor League Baseball, University of Nebraska Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 264:

For you youngsters out there, hitting 50 dingers in the pre-steroid craze days of the early 90s was an actual accomplishment; the only questionable substance Fielder was putting in his body were McRib sandwiches.

2008, Mike Stone, Art Regner, The Great Book of Detroit Sports Lists, Running Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 209:


miso

I’m here to look for a small, white, hexagonal pill called misoprostol. Also known as miso or Cytotec, the drug induces an abortion that appears like a miscarriage during the early stages of a woman’s pregnancy. For women living in Latin America and other countries that have traditionally outlawed abortion, miso has been a lifeline […]

2014 June 27, Erica Hellerstein, “The Rise of the DIY Abortion in Texas”, in The Atlantic:

Now a year later, as the courts consider the fate of mifepristone and abortion providers gird for the possibility of a miso-only protocol, Cristina says that she’s grateful she was able to end her unwanted pregnancy, although she knows not everyone has access to the same resources […]

2023 July 31, Sara Hutchinson, “Having an Abortion at Home? There’s a Hotline for That”, in Cosmopolitan:

(pharmacology, informal) Clipping of misoprostol.


pull out

en-verb

pull out (third-person singular simple present pulls out, present participle pulling out, simple past and past participle pulled out)

pulls out (present singular third-person)
pulling out (participle present)
pulled out (participle past)
pulled out (past)

Shortly before you ejaculate, you can pull out and use your hand (or hers) to push yourself over the edge. Some of my patients claim this is a more natural method of birth control[…]

2006, David J. Clayton, The Healthy Guide to Unhealthy Living: How to Survive Your Bad Habits, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 110:

She'd long since caught the knack of moving with him, and closed her arms and legs around him. “You'll fly with me, Tiberius? Take the last fence with me?” He'd meant to pull out. Coitus interruptus was a term even the scholars failing their Latin knew before they left public school.

2013, Grace Burrowes, Once Upon a Tartan, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 287:

(literally, intransitive) To use coitus interruptus as a method of birth control.

عَزَلَ

to use coitus interruptus as a method of birth control


mother-to-be

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mother-to-be.wav

The ideal position for a back massage for the mother-to-be is to sit astride a chair supported by cushions.

2000, Allison England, Aromatherapy and Massage for Mother and Baby, Healing Arts Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 52:

A pregnant woman, especially one expecting her first child.


Lamaze

Natural childbirth technique developed in the 1940s by French obstetrician Dr. Ferdinand Lamaze.


expecting

The expecting mother is enthusiastic about learning childcare.

When is the new couple expecting?

Of a woman, female animal, or couple, in expectation of giving birth; pregnant.


D and C

en-noun

D and C (countable and uncountable, plural D and Cs)

dilation and curettage
dilation and curettage#English


dilation and curettage

(medicine) A surgical procedure in which the cervix is dilated and the lining of the uterus is scraped with a curet.


coitus interruptus

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-coitus interruptus.wav

From Latin coitus (“sexual intercourse”) + interruptus (“interrupted, cut short”), the perfect passive participle of interrumpo (“to interrupt, to cut short”).

Yet in the event, population continued to grow – even though signs began to appear that coitus interruptus was beginning to be used systematically to reduce family size.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 351:

We have come some way since sheep's bladder condoms but male contraceptive options are still pretty basic. Not counting one Chinese invention - a small electronic device worn in the underpants, which causes infertility for a month after a current is switched on briefly - it is still down to the old favourites: abstinence, coitus interruptus, condoms or vasectomy.

2003 October 7, Lucy Atkins, “Men on the pill? Yeah, right”, in The Guardian:

[2013, Grace Burrowes, Once Upon a Tartan, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 287:

Sexual intercourse interrupted by withdrawal of the penis before ejaculation.

體外射精 /体外射精

sexual intercourse interrupted by withdrawal of the penis


lying-in

lying-in (plural lying-ins or lyings-in)

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from our first knowing each other, which was soon after my lying-in, we were almost inseparable companions […]

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 404:

The final stages of pregnancy; accouchement.


pro-life

en-adj

pro-life (comparative more pro-life, superlative most pro-life)

more pro-life (comparative)
most pro-life (superlative)

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Anti-abortion movements
Pro-life (disambiguation)

They were pro-life except in cases of rape, incest, or risk to the life or health of the mother.

Of, pertaining to, or supportive of the right to life; believing that life should be protected from its beginning to natural death in all or most circumstances.

(chiefly US) Opposed to the practice or legalization of abortion.

(specifically) Opposed to the legalization of euthanasia.

2005, Guerrilla Apologetics for Life Issues, page 60:

(specifically) Opposed to the legalization of capital punishment.

Suicidal people can have discussions about suicide on pro-life peer-to-peer forums and hotlines without fear of judgment or intervention.

2016, Jennings Brown, The sordid history of the first sanctioned suicide forum:


pro-choice

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Individualism, self-determination, and pro-choice rhetorics are additional cultural discourses that play into this experience as well: the ability to make your own choices in life and to be able to succeed with those choices is the quintessential American dream.

2010, Sara Hayden, Contemplating Maternity in an Era of Choice, page 102:

Supportive in general of a person's right to choose; supportive of self-determination, bodily integrity, and individual sovereignty.


franger

Unknown; perhaps an alteration of french letter.

You have a point. But on the other hand, I didn't run off and tell mum with a six pack in one hand and an open franger packet in the other.

1999 November 4, Egan Blinkhorn, “Pirate Pay TV”, in aus.tv.pay (Usenet):

Ranpaging^([sic]) Roy Slaven & HG Nelson who are comedians of the host broadcaster's Olympic graveyard shift have said that 48,000 of the frangers are for the personal use of the mayor of the Olympic village - 'Richo'. they claim the rest are for the Cuban team who when they have finished their events are going at it like rabbits.

2000 September 22, rhay10, “Sydney 2000 -Too sexy for some.....”, in rec.travel.australia+nz (Usenet):

The barber would say while he was cutting a grown-up′s hair, ‘Do you need any home supplies, sir?’ which is the secret code for a packet of frangers.

2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, unnumbered page:

Gone are the terms we used in our youth the frenchies, frangers, rubbers, joes, french letters, gumboots, rubbers, johnnies, parachutes and plastic fantastics -- these days they're just condoms.

2002 February 7, Janine Burgess, “Armour against pleasure?”, in The Timaru Herald:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A condom.


dysmenorrhea

en-noun

dysmenorrhea (countable and uncountable, plural dysmenorrheas)

From dys- + meno- + -rrhea = dys- + menorrhœa.

premenstrual syndrome

in which menstrual pain is often a component

(medicine) Painful menstruation (menstrual pain), viewed as a symptom in any of various disorders.


colposcopy

(medicine) The examination of the tissues of the vagina and cervix using a colposcope.


something for the weekend

When they had finished your haircut and were moving towards the till, they would lean over, pull a display box from behind a row of hair potions on the shelf, finger the box which you then saw contained condoms – normally Durex in those days – and ask, “Something for the weekend, Sir?” – even if it was only Monday! The first few times this happened to me was around 1955 and after having just left school and started work, I was extremely naïve and hadn't a clue what the barber meant.

2009, David Fowler, National Service, Elvis and Me!, page 69:


stretch mark

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Nobody in Cameron's family has stretch marks, and he thinks it's because their tissues grow slowly enough for the skin to catch up.

She hadn't even looked pregnant, especially with her clothes on. She'd gotten only one stretch mark. A thin, jagged line on her left booty cheek.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 99:

(dermatology) Any of a series of red (or purple or faded), irregular stripes on the surface of the skin caused by rapid growth of the tissues lying just underneath. They may appear as a result of pregnancy, puberty, obesity, rapid muscle growth or family history.


vaginismus

vaginismus (usually uncountable, plural vaginismuses)

(pathology) A painful muscular contraction of the vagina when attempting to insert something, such as a tampon or a penis, into it.


Pap smear

From Papanikolaou. Named after Greek-American physician Georgios Papanikolaou.

named-after

She felt vulnerable, like sheʼd just gotten her first Pap smear and didnʼt know how invasive it would feel.

2021, Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl, Bloomsbury, page 344:

(gynaecology) A screening test meant to detect pre-cancerous and cancerous cells by taking a sample (‘smear’) of cells from the cervix.


periodicity

en-noun

periodicity (countable and uncountable, plural periodicities)

From French périodicité. By surface analysis, periodic + -ity.

Recurrence of a woman's periods; menstruation.


aken

en-verb

aken (third-person singular simple present akens, present participle akenning, simple past and past participle akenned)

akens (present singular third-person)
akenning (participle present)
akenned (participle past)
akenned (past)

From Old English ācennan or gecennan, equivalent to a- + cennan (“to give birth to”).

(obsolete) To bear, give birth to. (Usually in the past participle.)


barrier method

A means of contraception involving an impenetrable barrier, such as a diaphragm or condom, between sexual partners.


catamenia

From Ancient Greek καταμήνια (katamḗnia), the neuter plural of καταμήνιος (katamḗnios, “monthly”), from κατά (katá) + μήν (mḗn, “month”).

On inquiry it was found that this neurosis corresponded in time with the oncome of the catamenia.

1881, American journal of obstetrics and diseases of women and children: Volume 14:


time of the month

en-noun

time of the month (plural times of the month)

I'm so, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm just a little bit, you know... Well, I've got you know at the moment, so... I've got Aunt Irma visiting.
Do you not like Aunt Irma? I've got an aunt like that.
It's my term for... my time of the month.
What time of the month? The weekend?

2006 Mar. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 6

You have to admit, however, that during that time of the month, we are not at our most likable. Let's face it. We are swollen up like an overfed slug, our breath stinks, the tiniest irritant is magnified ten thousand times, and we cry at the drop of a hat.

2014, Becky Rutledge, Miss Becky's Charm School, Citadel Press, →ISBN:

It’s that time, that time of the month / Well I woke up early and I got a hunch

2014, “Crimson Wave”, in NVM, performed by Tacocat:

(euphemistic) Synonym of menstruation: the monthly period during which a fertile woman menstruates.


ectopic

From Ancient Greek ἐκτόπιος (ektópios, “away from a place, out of place, out of the way”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) + -topic τόπος (tópos, “place”).

uder

(obstetrics, colloquial) An ectopic pregnancy.


high tide

en-noun

high tide (countable and uncountable, plural high tides)

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Do you not like Aunt Irma? I've got an aunt like that.
It's my term for... my time of the month.
What time of the month? The weekend?
No... you know, it... it's high tide.
But we're not on the coast.


gynecology

gynecology (usually uncountable, plural gynecologies)

/ˌɡaɪnɪˈkɒlədʒi/

/ˌɡaɪnəˈkɑləd͡ʒi/

/ˌd͡ʒaɪnəˈkɑləd͡ʒi/

From French gynécologie, from Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ, “woman”) + -logie (“-logy”). Replaced earlier gyniatrics.

Coordinate term: obstetrics

The study of, or the branch of medicine specializing in, the medical problems of women, especially disorders of the reproductive organs.

gjinekologji

branch of medicine specializing in the problems of women


IVG

From languages in which "voluntary interruption of pregnancy" has the initials IVG, like French interruption volontaire de grossesse, Italian interruzione volontaria di gravidanza, Portuguese interrupção voluntária da gravidez, etc.

bor

By the 1982 mobilisations to force the Left government to include IVGs under the Social Security system, […]

It seems less likely that the establishments now performing abortions illicitly will accept to report them in the future, inasmuch as their services are filling a void. The reimbursement of IVGs is not a Social Security item, but a[…]

In terms of the implementation, more than 97% of all IVGs are under the 'abortion on demand' option, which led to an improvement in the statistics regarding complications from illegal abortions.

2016 January 12, J. Outshoorn, European Women's Movements and Body Politics: The Struggle for Autonomy, Springer, →ISBN:

An inducted abortion (in the context of a country like France).


contraception

en-noun

contraception (usually uncountable, plural contraceptions)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-contraception.wav

The use of a device or procedure to prevent conception as a result of sexual activity.

предпазване

от забременяване


with young

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snip

en-verb

snip (third-person singular simple present snips, present participle snipping, simple past and past participle snipped)

snips (present singular third-person)
snipping (participle present)
snipped (participle past)
snipped (past)

From Dutch snippen (“to snip; shred”) or Low German snippen (“to snip; shred”), of imitative origin. Compare snap.

onomatopoeic

imitative

Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped.

2001, David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century, John WIley & Sons Ltd, published 2001, →ISBN, page 72:

His children, however, were not snipped, possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.

2008, Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish, Adams Media, published 2008, →ISBN, page 150:

By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped, but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.

2012, Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis, Square Peg, published 2012, →ISBN, page 144:


abortion pill

A drug, such as mifepristone (Mifegyne), used to terminate a pregnancy in its earliest stage.

abortuspil

drug used to terminate pregnancy in early stage


puerperal fever

en-noun

puerperal fever (countable and uncountable, plural puerperal fevers)

It was the rise of penicillin, not improved hygiene, that finally conquered puerperal fever.

2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 344:

(pathology, obstetrics) A fever, following childbirth or abortion, due to infection of the uterus.


induced abortion

induced abortion (plural induced abortions)

A surgical or medicinal procedure that terminates a pregnancy by removing the fetus; a therapeutic abortion. It is a non-contraceptive form of birth control.


chemical abortion

chemical abortion (countable and uncountable, plural chemical abortions)

A medical, rather than surgical, abortion induced by a drug.


perinatal

en-adj

perinatal (comparative more perinatal, superlative most perinatal)

more perinatal (comparative)
most perinatal (superlative)

Perinatal HIV infection of infants is a problem in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of or pertaining to the time around birth.

perinataalinen

of or pertaining to the time around birth


enceinte

And the time was pressing, for the new queen was enceinte, and further concealment was not to be thought of.

1909, James Anthony Froude et al., The Reign of Henry the Eighth, volume I:


enceinte

The line of works forming the main enclosure of a fortress.

S. W. Williams
The suburbs are not unfrequently larger than their enceinte.

The area or town enclosed by a line of fortification.


dyspareunia

/dɪspəˈɹuːnɪə/

From dys- + Ancient Greek πάρευνος (páreunos, “lying beside, lying with”) + -ia.

uder

deep dyspareunia ― pain on deep penetration

(medicine) Painful or difficult sexual intercourse, especially in women.


mpreg

(fandom slang) Abbreviation of male pregnancy.


cervical cap

A small latex or silicone contraceptive device that fits over the cervix and stays in place either by suction or by surface viscosity.


amniotic fluid

en-noun

amniotic fluid (countable and uncountable, plural amniotic fluids)

(zoology) In placental mammals, a fluid contained within the amnion membrane that surrounds a developing embryo or fetus.

سُخْد

fluid that surrounds a developing embryo or fetus


menstrual cup

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A receptacle worn inside the vagina during menstruation to collect menstrual fluid.