Nulliparity

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of having never borne children, specifically in reference to females who have not given birth
2. A biological condition that denotes a woman who has not experienced childbirth throughout her reproductive life
3. Describing the reproductive status of an individual that has not yet participated in parturition or gestation of offspring

Etymology: Nulliparity is a modern medical formation built from classical Latin. Its core is "parere," meaning "to bring forth" or "to give birth," the same root that gives English "parent," since a parent is literally one who produces offspring. Its prefix comes from "nullus," meaning "none," and its ending, "-ity," comes via Old French from Latin "-itas," which turns an adjective into an abstract noun. Ancient Greeks and Romans had no single term for this condition. The English form is built on "nullipara," a Latin-style noun for a woman who has never given birth, which was coined by physicians and medical writers who needed precise vocabulary for classifying births. The same system produced "primipara" for a woman bearing her first child and "multipara" for one who has borne several, so the terms form a set. Modern clinicians still use "nulliparous" as the adjective and "nulliparity" as the state.

Synonyms: infertility, sterility