Wiktionary

puerpera

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin puerpera (“woman in labor or childbed”), substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“child, boy”) +‎ pariō (“to bring forth, bear”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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puerpera (plural puerperas or puerperae)

  1. (obstetrics) A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
    • 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:
      I saw a very serious hemorrhage result from relaxation of the uterus on the eleventh day when the puerpera had been frightened by a domestic quarrel.
    • 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:
      Since one of the principal reasons for keeping the puerpera in a recumbent posture is avoidance of strain upon relaxed and weakened supporting structures by a large heavy uterus, the length of the stay in bed is not made a matter of routine
    • 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, editors, Chronobiology 1982-1983:
      A statistically significant circadian rhythm for urine volume was revealed in 6 of 10 pregnant women in the first trimester and in 6 of 9 puerperas on the 7th puerperal day.
    • 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:
      Abdominal ultrasound of the puerpera usually does not require a full bladder, because the enlarged uterus directly abuts the anterior abdominal wall and can be scanned without difficulty.
  2. (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
    • 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:
      An often proved Remedy to bring away what is, or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera, though it were Part of a dead Child.
    • 1860, Henry E. Brady, David Collier, quoting Ignaz Semmelweis, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 224:
      "I must acknowledge, if Kolletschka's disease and the disease from which I saw so many puerperae die, are identical, then in the puerperae it must be produced by the self-same engendering cause, which produced it in Kolletschka."
    • 1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:
      Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".
    • 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:
      With the exception of the very nearest, — for instance, the husband and the mother of the puerpera, — visitors should be kept away until she has been out of bed for a few days, and even then admitted only in small numbers and one at a time.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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Italian

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Noun

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puerpera f (plural puerpere)

  1. a woman who has just given birth
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Latin

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Etymology 1

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Substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“boy, child”) +‎ pariō (“to bear, give birth”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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puerpera f (genitive puerperae); first declension

  1. woman in labor or in childbed, lying-in woman
Inflection
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First-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative puerpera puerperae
Genitive puerperae puerperārum
Dative puerperae puerperīs
Accusative puerperam puerperās
Ablative puerperā puerperīs
Vocative puerpera puerperae
Derived terms
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Descendants
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References

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Etymology 2

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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puerpera

  1. inflection of puerperus:
    1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
    2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

Adjective

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puerperā

  1. ablative feminine singular of puerperus
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