birth

Etymology 1

From Middle English birthe (1250), from earlier burthe, burde, from Old Norse burðr, byrd (Old Swedish byrth, Swedish börd), replacing Old English ġebyrd (rare variant byrþ), equivalent to bear + -th (compare also berth). The Old Norse is from Proto-Germanic *burdiz (compare Old Frisian berde, berd); Old English ġebyrd is from prefixed *gaburþiz (compare Dutch geboorte, German Geburt), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥tis (compare Latin fors (“luck”), Old Irish brith), from *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”). More at bear.

noun

1. (uncountable) The process of childbearing; the beginning of life.
2. (countable) An instance of childbirth.
   Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.
3. (countable) A beginning or start; a point of origin.
   the birth of an empire
4. (uncountable) The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
   He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.
   without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications 1843, William H. Prescott, History Of The Conquest Of Mexico And History Of The Conquest Of Peru, The Modern Library, page 42
   Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil. 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage
5. That which is born.
   That poets are far rarer births than kings. 1692, Ben Jonson, “Epigrams”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, page 288
   Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself. 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of Joseph Addison, volume 3, John Baskerville, page 49
6. Misspelling of berth.
   “[…] She lays close to the Endymion, between her and the Cleopatra, just to the eastward of the sheer hulk.” “Ha!” cried William, “that’s just where I should have put her myself. It’s the best birth at Spithead.[…]” 1816, Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park, 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] J[ohn] Murray,[…], page 151

adj

1. A familial relationship established by childbirth.
   Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.

Etymology 2

From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).

verb

1. (transitive) To bear or give birth to (a child).
   I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies! 1939, Sidney Howard, Ben Hecht, Jo Swerling, John Van Druten, Oliver H.P. Garrett, Gone with the Wind (film)
   Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold? Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat. Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown. 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
   She cites some recent examples from the papers: “I birthed two babies in rapid succession”; Beyoncé “birthed her twins”; while somewhere else in the same paper a woman proudly proclaimed: “I birthed a calf!”. She ends: “My objection to the American usage is that it seems to stress rather crudely the muscular process of bringing forth a baby, whereas the graceful British English term ‘to give birth to’ is much more dignified!” 2023-03-05, Jonathan Bouquet, “May I have a word about… being stuck in a permacrisis”, in The Observer, →ISSN
2. (transitive, figurative) To produce, give rise to.
   Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it. 2006, R. Bruce Hull, Infinite Nature, University of Chicago Press, page 156