Other forms: pregnancies
Pregnancy is the condition of carrying a baby before birth. A first pregnancy, during pregnancy, a difficult pregnancy.
It runs about forty weeks counted from the last period, which is why the count starts before conception. It is divided into three trimesters, and antenatal care exists because most of the serious complications can be caught early if anybody is looking.
1nounpregnancyThe condition of carrying a baby before birth.
“She felt sick every morning during the early months of her pregnancy.”
pregnancy is a condition.
Latin
praegnāns — pregnant
Old French
preignant
Middle English
preignant
English
pregnant
English, today
pregnancy
Built from
From pregnant + -cy. pregnant comes from Middle English preignant, from Old French preignant, pregnant, also prenant (compare archaic Modern French prégnant), and their source, Latin praegnāns (“pregnant”), probably from prae- (“pre-”) + gnāscī, an archaic form of nascor (“to be born”). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA