foster
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɒstə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfɔstɚ/
- (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ˈfɑstɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒstə(ɹ)
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).
AdjectiveEdit
foster (not comparable)
- Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.
- foster parents
- Receiving such care.
- a foster child
- Related by such care.
- We are a foster family.
TranslationsEdit
NounEdit
foster (countable and uncountable, plural fosters)
- (countable, informal) A foster parent.
- Some fosters end up adopting.
- (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship.
VerbEdit
foster (third-person singular simple present fosters, present participle fostering, simple past and past participle fostered)
- (transitive) To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
- c. 1588–1593, [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: As It was Plaide by the Right Honourable the Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex Their Seruants (the First Quarto), London: Printed by Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, at the little North doore of Paules at the signe of the Gunne, published 1594, OCLC 222241046, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.
- (transitive) To cultivate and grow something.
- Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.
- 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ‘Sacha Baron Cohen’s vital, venomous action movie’”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):
- Grimsby doesn't ever wound quite as devastatingly as Borat or Brüno, but it's a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters.
- (transitive) To nurse or cherish something.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book 4, canto 5:
- There Florimell, in her first ages flowre,
And passing beautie did eftsoones reveale,
Was fostered by those Graces
AntonymsEdit
- (cultivate and grow): hinder
Derived termsEdit
Usage notesEdit
Modern English makes a distinction between fostering (which is implied to be temporary or informal) and adopting (which is permanent and makes the child legally recognized as part of the family). In older usage the two terms were more interchangeable.
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Etymology 2Edit
NounEdit
foster (plural fosters)
- (obsolete) A forester.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)
AnagramsEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”)
NounEdit
foster n (singular definite fostret or fosteret, plural indefinite fostre)
InflectionEdit
Norwegian BokmålEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
foster n (definite singular fosteret or fostret, indefinite plural foster or fostre, definite plural fostra or fostrene)
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “foster” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
foster n (definite singular fosteret, indefinite plural foster, definite plural fostera)
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “foster” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Germanic *fōstrą, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
fōster n
DeclensionEdit
Derived termsEdit
- fōsterbearn n (“foster child”)
- fōsterbrōþor m (“foster brother”)
- fōsterfæder m (“foster father, nourisher”)
- fōsterland n (“land assigned for the procuring of provisions”)
- fōsterlēan n (“remuneration for raising a foster child”)
- fōsterling m (“foster child, fosterling”)
- fōsterman m (“foster man, bondsman, security”)
- fōstermōdor f (“foster mother”)
- fōsternōþ m (“pasturage, pasture”)
- fōstersweostor (“foster sister”)
- fōsterċild n (“foster child”)
- fōstre f (“fosterer, nurse”)
- fōstrian (“to foster, nourish”)
- fōstring m (“native, disciple”)
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898), “fōster”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”)
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
foster n
DeclensionEdit
| Declension of foster | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | foster | fostret | foster | fostren |
| Genitive | fosters | fostrets | fosters | fostrens |