Where does “puerperal” come from?
Puerperal derives from Latin puerperalis, from Latin puerpera (woman in childbirth), from Latin puer (boy), from Proto-Indo-European per-, from Proto-Indo-European peh₂w- (to swell or ripen).
puerperal (English): Of, pertaining to or associated with childbirth
Definitions
- Of, pertaining to or associated with childbirth
Ancestry of “puerperal”, step by step
puerperal traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via New Latin puerperalis
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Latin | puerperalis | — |
| 2 | Latin | puerpera | a woman in labor or in childbed, a lying-in... |
| 3 | Latin | puerperus | of a woman in labor |
| 4 | Latin | pariō | to bear, to give birth to |
| 5 | Latin | -iō | — |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | -jō | Forms agent nouns from verbs |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 9 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |
via Italian puerperale
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | puerperale | puerperal |
| 2 | Italian | -ale | Added to nouns to form adjectives; -al |
| 3 | Latin | -ālis | — |
| 4 | Proto-Italic | -ālis | forms relational adjectives |