puerpera

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin puerpera (“woman in labor or childbed”), substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“child, boy”) +‎ pariō (“to bring forth, bear”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pjuˈɜː.pə.ɹə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pjuˈɝ.pəɹ.ə/

Noun

puerpera (plural puerperas or puerperae)

1. (obstetrics) A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
   • 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:

     I saw a very serious hemorrhage result from relaxation of the uterus on the eleventh day when the puerpera had been frightened by a domestic quarrel.

   • 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:

     Since one of the principal reasons for keeping the puerpera in a recumbent posture is avoidance of strain upon relaxed and weakened supporting structures by a large heavy uterus, the length of the stay in bed is not made a matter of routine

   • 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, editors, Chronobiology 1982-1983:

     A statistically significant circadian rhythm for urine volume was revealed in 6 of 10 pregnant women in the first trimester and in 6 of 9 puerperas on the 7th puerperal day.

   • 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:

     Abdominal ultrasound of the puerpera usually does not require a full bladder, because the enlarged uterus directly abuts the anterior abdominal wall and can be scanned without difficulty.

2. (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
   • 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:

     An often proved Remedy to bring away what is, or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera, though it were Part of a dead Child.

   • 1860, Henry E. Brady, David Collier, quoting Ignaz Semmelweis, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 224:

     "I must acknowledge, if Kolletschka's disease and the disease from which I saw so many puerperae die, are identical, then in the puerperae it must be produced by the self-same engendering cause, which produced it in Kolletschka."

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

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

   • 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:

     With the exception of the very nearest, — for instance, the husband and the mother of the puerpera, — visitors should be kept away until she has been out of bed for a few days, and even then admitted only in small numbers and one at a time.

Derived terms

• puerperal

Translations

woman undergoing puerperium

• French: puerpère f
• German: Wöchnerin (de) f
• Italian: puerpera (it) f
• Polish: położnica (pl) f
• Spanish: puérpara f

References

• “puerpera”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Italian

Noun

puerpera f (plural puerpere)

1. a woman who has just given birth

Related terms

• puerperio

Latin

Etymology 1

Substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“boy, child”) +‎ pariō (“to bear, give birth”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

Noun

puerpera f (genitive puerperae); first declension

1. woman in labor or in childbed, lying-in woman
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 5.1.40
   • c. 30 BCE, Horace, Epodes 17.52

Inflection

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	puerpera	puerperae
genitive	puerperae	puerperārum
dative	puerperae	puerperīs
accusative	puerperam	puerperās
ablative	puerperā	puerperīs
vocative	puerpera	puerperae

Derived terms

• puerperium

Descendants

• Italian: puerpera
• Portuguese: puérpera
• Sicilian: puèrpira
• Spanish: puérpera
• → English: puerpera
• → German: Puerpera

References

• puerpera in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “puerperus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• puerpera: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
• puerpera: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]
• puerperā: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.raː/, [puˈɛrpɛräː]
• puerperā: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

Adjective

puerpera

1. inflection of puerperus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

Adjective

puerperā

1. ablative feminine singular of puerperus