Why Are They Called Midwives? - The AnswerBank

Home > Phrases & Sayings > Why are they called midwives? Why are they called midwives? Avatar Image flobadob | 12:36 Mon 14th Feb 2011 | Phrases & Sayings 4 Answers
  • Subscribe
  • Report ⚑
Why are people who help deliver babies called midwives? prev Queen Anne legs next shocking spelling from gov email Gravatar Answers

1 to 4 of 4rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by flobadob. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ. Avatar Image B00 It comes from Middle English: mid = "with" and Old English: wif = "woman". 12:37 Mon 14th Feb 2011 Avatar Image NazNomad The word midwife is the sort of word whose etymology seems perfectly clear until one tries to figure it out. Wife would seem to refer to the woman giving birth, who is usually a wife, but mid ? A knowledge of older senses of words helps us with this puzzle. Wife in its earlier history meant "woman," as it still did when the compound midwife was formed in Middle English (first recorded around 1300). Mid is probably a preposition, meaning "together with." Thus a midwife was literally a "with woman" or "a woman who assists other women in childbirth." Even though obstetrics has been rather resistant to midwifery until fairly recently, the etymology of obstetric is rather similar, going back to the Latin word obstetrx, "a midwife," from the verb obstre, "to stand in front of," and the feminine suffix -trx; the obstetrx would thus literally stand in front of the baby. 12:37 Mon 14th Feb 2011 Avatar Image heathfield Many of our words in English derive from the Teutonic languages. Hence I suspect that the Middle English 'mid' meaning 'with' has much to do with the German word 'mit' meaning the same thing. Strangely enough, none of the etymological sources I've looked at seem to have made this connection. 15:25 Mon 14th Feb 2011 Avatar Image beso It's obvious. They deal with that bump in the middle of the wife. 10:21 Thu 17th Feb 2011

1 to 4 of 4rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Why are they called midwives?

Answer Question >>

Latest Posts

Refresh

  • User Avatar

    modesteWordle December 31St

    Quizzes & Puzzles42 mins ago

  • User Avatar

    1ozzyWaffle Game - 31/12

    Quizzes & Puzzles85 mins ago

  • User Avatar

    douglas9401Is Such A Thing As A Dynastic Curse...

    News115 mins ago

  • User Avatar

    douglas9401Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New.

    ChatterBank121 mins ago

  • User Avatar

    scorpiojoSir Idris

    News147 mins ago

  • User Avatar

    douglas9401Statins

    Body & Soul151 mins ago

Related Questions

Avatar Image Cockney_si

Midwives

10:43 Thu 05th Jul 20071 answer, last by bigmamma 09:57 Tue 10th Jul 2007

Tag » Why Are They Called Midwives