womb

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• wame (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *wambō (“belly, stomach, abdomen”), from Proto-Indo-European *wamp- (“membrane (of bowels), intestines, womb”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame (“womb”), Dutch wam (“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), Danish vom (“belly, paunch, rumen”), Swedish våmb (“belly, stomach, rumen”), Norwegian vomb (“belly”), Icelandic vömb (“belly, abdomen, stomach”), Old Welsh gumbelauc (“womb”), Breton gwamm (“woman, wife”), Sanskrit  (vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /wuːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

womb (plural wombs)

1. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. [from 8th c.]
2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8th-17th c.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     And his hede, hym semed,was enamyled with asure, and his shuldyrs shone as the golde, and his wombe was lyke mayles of a merveylous hew [...].

3. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. [8th-18th c.]
   • 1395, John Wycliffe, Bible, Jonah II:

     And þe Lord made redi a gret fish þat he shulde swolewe Ionas; and Ionas was in wombe of þe fish þre daȝes and þre niȝtis.

4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15th c.]

Synonyms

• (organ in mammals): uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

Translations

uterus

• Afrikaans: baarmoeder (af)
• Albanian: mitër (sq)
• Arabic: رحم (ar) (raḥim) m

  Egyptian Arabic: رحم (raḥem) m, بيت الولد (bét el wéld) m (archaic)

• Armenian: արգանդ (hy) (argand)
• Azeri: uşaqlıq (az)
• Belarusian: матка (be) (mátka) f, чэрава (be) (čérava) n
• Bengali: জরায়ু (bn) (jôrayu)
• Bulgarian: матка (bg) (mátka) f, утроба (bg) (utróba) f
• Burmese: သားအိမ် (my) (thaein)
• Catalan: úter (ca) m, matriu (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 子宮 (cmn), 子宫 (cmn) (zǐgōng)

• Czech: děloha (cs) f
• Danish: livmoder (da) c
• Dutch: baarmoeder (nl)
• Esperanto: utero (eo)
• Estonian: emakas (et)
• Finnish: kohtu (fi)
• French: utérus (fr) m, ventre (fr) m, (archaic) matrice (fr) f
• Galician: útero (gl) m
• Georgian: საშვილოსნოს (ka) (sašvilosnos)
• German: Mutterleib (de) m, Gebärmutter (de) f, Schoß (de) m, Uterus (de) m
• Greek: μήτρα (el) (mítra) f
• Guaraní: ye (t-)
• Gujarati: ગર્ભાશય (gu) (garbhāśay)
• Hebrew: רחם (he) m
• Hindi: गर्भ (hi) (garbh) m, गर्भाशय (hi) (garbhāśay)
• Hungarian: méh (hu)
• Icelandic: leg (is) n, móðurlíf (is) n
• Indonesian: rahim (id)
• Interlingua: utero, matrice
• Italian: utero (it) m, grembo (it) m
• Japanese: 子宮 (ja) (しきゅう, shikyū), 母胎 (ja) (ぼたい, botai)
• Kannada: ಗರ್ಭಕೋಶ (kn) (garbhakoś)
• Kazakh: жатыр (kk) (jatır)
• Khmer: ស្បូន (km) (sboon)
• Korean: 자궁 (ko) (jagung) (子宮 (ko))

• Lao: ມົດລູກ (lo) (mōt lȗːk)
• Latin: uterus (la) m, uterum (la) n
• Latvian: dzemde (lv)
• Lithuanian: gimda (lt) f
• Macedonian: матка (mk) (mátka) f, утроба (mk) (útroba) f
• Malagasy: bobo (mg), fananahana (mg), vohoka (mg)
• Malay: rahim (ms), uterus (ms), peranakan (ms), peranakan (ms), uterus (ms)
• Malayalam: ഗര്‍ഭപാത്രം (ml) (garbhapaathram)
• Maltese: ġuf (mt) m
• Old Church Slavonic: чрѣво (črěvo) n
• Persian: رحم (fa) (rahem)
• Polish: macica (pl) f
• Portuguese: útero (pt) m, matriz (pt) f
• Romanian: uter (ro) n, matcă (ro) f
• Russian: матка (ru) (mátka) f, утроба (ru) (utróba) f, чрево (ru) (črévo) n
• Sanskrit: गर्भ (sa) (garbha) m
• Scottish Gaelic: machlag (gd) f, broinn (gd) f, brù (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: матерница (sh) f, материца (sh) f, утроба (sh) f

  Roman: maternica (sh) f, materica (sh) f, utroba (sh) f

• Slovak: maternica (sk) f
• Slovene: maternica (sl) f
• Spanish: útero (es) m, matriz (es) f
• Swahili: uzazi (sw)
• Swedish: livmoder (sv) c
• Tagalog: bahay-bata (tl), sinapupunan (tl), matris (tl), utero (tl)
• Tamil: கருப்பை (ta) (karuppai)
• Telugu: గర్భం (te) (garbham), గర్భాశయము (te) (garbhasayamu)
• Thai: มดลูก (th) (mót lôok)
• Tupinambá: ygé (t-)
• Turkish: rahim (tr), dölyatağı (tr), uterus (tr)
• Ukrainian: матка (uk) (mátka) f, утроба (uk) (utróba) f, чрево (uk) (črévo) n
• Urdu: گربھ (ur) (garbh) m
• Vietnamese: tử cung (vi) (子宮 (vi)), dạ con (vi)
• Volapük: vüm
• Yiddish: טראכט (yi)

figuratively: place where something is made or formed

• Czech: lůno (cs) n, kolébka (cs) f
• Finnish: kehto (fi)
• French: moule (fr) m
• Greek: μήτρα (el) (mítra) f
• Italian: grembo (it) m

• Polish: łono (pl) n
• Portuguese: útero (pt) m
• Russian: лоно (ru) (lóno) n, чрево (ru) (črévo) n, колыбель (ru) (kolybélʹ) f
• Scottish Gaelic: broinn (gd) f

belly — see belly

Verb

womb (third-person singular simple present wombs, present participle wombing, simple past and past participle wombed)

1. (obsolete) To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)