Other forms: birthmarks
A birthmark is a coloured mark on the skin present from birth. A small birthmark, a port-wine birthmark, cover the birthmark.
Most are harmless and many fade, and the two main kinds are pigmented marks and those made of blood vessels. Older names were mother's mark and longing mark, from a belief that what a mother craved or saw in pregnancy left its trace on the child.
1nounbirthmarkA coloured mark on the skin present from birth.
“She has a small red birthmark on her neck.”
birthmark is a skin mark.
Birth plus mark. It displaced older names like mother's mark and longing mark, which carried a belief about the mother's cravings.
From birth + mark. Displaced earlier terms longing mark and mother's mark.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA