pregnant

See also: prégnant

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛɡnənt/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛɡnənt

Etymology 1Edit

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 nāscī (to be born). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").

AdjectiveEdit

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

  1. (chiefly not comparable) Carrying developing offspring within the body.
    • 2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time[1]:
      Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.
    I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m pregnant!
    1. Of a couple: expecting a baby together.
      We are pregnant.
  2. (comparable) Having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.
    a pregnant pause
  3. (poetic) Fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. [], London: [] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.
  4. (obsolete) Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.
  5. (obsolete) Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.
SynonymsEdit
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

pregnant (plural pregnants)

  1. A pregnant woman.
    • 1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions:
      The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (pressing, compelling), present participle of prembre (to press), from Latin premere (to press).

AdjectiveEdit

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

  1. (now rare) Compelling; clear, evident. [from 14th c.]
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 18, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle [], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., [], published 1781, →OCLC:
      Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.

DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Middle French pregnant, from Old French pregnant, from Latin praegnāns.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /prɛxˈnɑnt/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: preg‧nant
  • Rhymes: -ɑnt

AdjectiveEdit

pregnant (comparative pregnanter, superlative pregnantst)

  1. poignant, incisive
  2. meaningful, polysemic
  3. (obsolete) important

InflectionEdit

Inflection of pregnant
uninflected pregnant
inflected pregnante
comparative pregnanter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial pregnant pregnanter het pregnantst
het pregnantste
indefinite m./f. sing. pregnante pregnantere pregnantste
n. sing. pregnant pregnanter pregnantste
plural pregnante pregnantere pregnantste
definite pregnante pregnantere pregnantste
partitive pregnants pregnanters

RomanianEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from German prägnant and French prégnant.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

pregnant m or n (feminine singular pregnantă, masculine plural pregnanți, feminine and neuter plural pregnante)

  1. pregnant (having many possibilities or implications)

DeclensionEdit