conceive

Etymology

From Middle English conceyven, from Old French concevoir, conceveir, from Latin concipiō, concipere (“to devise, to conceive”).

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To have a child; to become pregnant (with).
   Assisted procreation can help those trying to conceive.
2. (transitive) To develop; to form in the mind; to imagine.
   There are, moreover, grounds for thinking that the Rosaline of Love’s Labour’s Lost was originally conceived of by Shakespeare as pale with black eyes—... 1890, Thomas Tyler, Shakespeare's Sonnets, D. Nutt, page 81
3. (transitive, intransitive with of, ditransitive) To imagine (as); to have a conception of; to form a representation of.
   Can you conceive of him as a leader?
   Remember, if you please, that the man you call slave sprang from the same seed, enjoys the same daylight, breathes like you, lives like you, dies like you. You can as easily conceive him a free man as he can conceive you a slave. 2008 [c. 65 CE], Seneca the Younger, “Letter on Slaves”, in Andrew Bailey et al., editors, The Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought, volume 1, page 258
4. (transitive) To understand (someone).