childing

English

WOTD – 9 May 2022

Pronunciation

A mother shortly after childing (noun sense). This image of Lynda Coburn at the birth of her daughter, Jackie Lynn Coburn, on 27 January 1972, called “Moment of Life”, was part of a series documenting childbirth for which the American photographer Brian Lanker won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: child‧ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English childing, childinge [and other forms], from childen (“to give birth to a child”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerunds from verbs). Equivalent to child +‎ -ing.

Noun

childing (uncountable)

1. (archaic) gerund of child: the act or process of childbearing or childbirth.

   Synonyms: delivery, parturition

   • 1610 October, John Foxe, “The Whole Tragicall Historie of Frederike the Second Emperor, Translated out of the Latine Booke of Nich[olas] Cisnerus”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. […], 6th edition, volume I, London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC, book IV, page 270, column 1:

     This Conſtantia was fiftie yeares of age before ſhe was conceiued with him; whom the emperor Henrie the ſixth to auoide all doubt and ſurmiſe that of hir conception and childing might be thought, and to the perill of the empire inſue: cauſed his regall tent to be pitched abrode in place where euery man might reſort.

   • 1809, Robert Southey, “Notes to Book XI”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, page 252:

     When Zalzer is grown up, and leaves the nest, the Simorg gives him one of her feathers, telling him, whenever he is in great distress, to burn it, and she will immediately come to his assistance. Zalzer marries Rodahver, who is likely to die in childing; he then burns the feather, and the Simorg appears and orders the Cæsarean operation to be performed.

   • 1897, William Morris, “The Goodman Gets a New Hired Man”, in [May Morris], editor, The Sundering Flood, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co., […], published 1898, →OCLC, page 40:

     [H]e had grown up there and there wedded a wife; but that when she died in childing with her first bairn, and the bairn had not lived, he loathed the place, and came back again into the Dale.

   • 2008, K. E. Saxon, Highland Vengeance (The Medieval Highlanders; 1), [U.S.A.]: Passion Flower Publishing, published 2012, →ISBN, page 207:

     I only wish you had arrived this day past. For we had a feast in honor of my wife's childing and her father's visit. Your arrival would have given us even more to be glad for.

Translations

act or process of childbearing or childbirth — see childbearing,‎ childbirth

Etymology 2

From late Middle English childing (“pregnant”), from childen (“to give birth to a child”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming the present participles of verbs, which were often used as adjectives); equivalent to child (verb) +‎ -ing (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having a specified characteristic, nature, or quality’, and forming the present participles of verbs).

Adjective

childing (not comparable)

1. (archaic)
   1. Able to bear children; fertile; also, pregnant, or in the process of childbirth, or having just given birth to a child.

      (able to bear children):

      Synonyms: fecund, fruitful

      Antonyms: barren, infertile

      (in the process of childbirth): Synonyms: in delivery, in labour

      (having just given birth): Synonyms: (one sense) postnatal, postpartal, postpartum, post-partural

      • 1798, Robert Southey, “The Battle of Blenheim”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published 1838, →OCLC, stanza 8, page 153:

        With fire and sword the country round / Was wasted far and wide, / And many a childing mother then, / And new-born baby died; / But things like that, you know, must be / At every famous victory.

   2. (horticulture) Of a flowering plant: producing younger florets around an older flower.
      • 1629, John Parkinson, “Bellis. Daisie.”, in Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. […], London: […] Hvmfrey Lownes and Robert Yovng […], →OCLC, pages 323–324:

        [page 323] Bellis minor hortenſis prolifera. Double double Daiſies or childing Daiſies. […] The chiefeſt variety conſiſteth in this, that is beareth many ſmall double flowers, ſtanding vpon very ſhort ſtalkes round about the middle flower, […] [page 324] The French call them Paſquettes, and Marguerites, and the Fruitfull ſort, or thoſe that beare ſmall flowers about the middle one, Margueritons: our Engliſh women call them Iacke an Apes on horſe-backe, as they doe Marigolds before recited, or childing Daiſies: but the Phyſitians and Apothecaries doe in generall call them, eſpecially the ſingle or Field kindes, Conſolida minor.

2. (obsolete, figuratively) Fruitful; productive.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 17, lines 111–113:

     The Spring, the Sommer, / The childing Autumne, angry Winter change / Their wonted Liueries; and the mazed worlde, / By their increaſe, now knowes not which is which; […]

Translations

able to bear children — see fertile

pregnant — see pregnant

in the process of childbirth

having just given birth to a child — see postpartum

of a flowering plant: producing younger florets around an older flower

Verb

childing

1. present participle and gerund of child

Further reading

• childbirth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• chidling

Middle English

Alternative forms

• childinge, childyng, childynge, childinke, childingue, childeng, chyldyng, chyldinge, chyldynge, childenge, chilting, shyldyng

Etymology

From child +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʃiːldinɡ/

Noun

childing (uncountable)

1. childbirth

Descendants

• English: childing (archaic)

References

• “chīldinge, ger.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-07-01.