interesting condition

English

Noun

interesting condition (plural interesting conditions)

1. (euphemistic, archaic) Pregnancy [from mid-18th c.]

   Synonym: interesting situation

   • 1880, Charles Dickens, Great expectations, page 549:

     I cannot honestly report that I have ever seen a feline matron of this class washing her face when in an interesting condition.

   • 1917, Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnet, Anna Karenina, Part 2, Chapter 5:

     His young wife ... was at church with her mother, and suddenly overcome by indisposition, arising from her interesting condition, she could not remain standing, she drove home in the first sledge, a smart-looking one, she came across.

   • 1920, James Joyce, Ulysses, page 336:

     ... and replied that he was come there about a lady, now an inmate of Horne's house, that was in an interesting condition, poor body, from woman's woe (and here he fetched a deep sigh) and to know if her happiness had yet taken place.

   • 1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, page 168:

     They borrowed a female [cat] in an interesting condition and set their trap under the cypress tree at the top of the vacant lot.

   • 1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes: a memoir, page 15:

     That knee-trembler put Angela in an interesting condition and, of course, there was talk.

Translations

pregnancy (euphemism)

• Finnish: siunattu tila
• French: position intéressante (fr) f, situation intéressante (fr) f, état intéressant (fr) m
• Japanese: おめでた (omedeta)
• Russian: интере́сное положе́ние (ru) n (interésnoje položénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: друго стање n (literally “different state”), благословено стање n (literally “blessed state”)

  Roman: drugo stanje n (literally “different state”), blagosloveno stanje (sh) n (literally “blessed state”)