Birthings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act or process of bringing forth offspring in a biological context
2. The event where new life enters the world or is produced by a living organism
3. A term describing the instances or occasions of childbirth or reproduction in living beings

Etymology: "Birthings" is the plural of "birthing," which is simply "birth" with the suffix "-ing" attached. The noun "birth" traces back through Middle English "birthe," a form that came from Old Norse "burðr," meaning "birth" or "bearing," and that word descends from the Proto-Germanic "burþiz," itself rooted in the ancient Indo-European verb for carrying or bearing a child, *bʰer-. So the core idea has always been bearing or carrying something forth. The "-ing" ending is the more ambiguous part. English has several "-ing" formations (gerunds, participles, and nouns like "king" that merely end this way), and the source does not settle which one "birthing" belongs to. What matters is that adding "-ing" to "birth" produced a word for the act or process of giving birth, and making that noun plural lets it name many separate occasions at once.

Synonyms: deliveries, births