virgin birth

English

Etymology

From virgin +‎ birth.

Noun

virgin birth (countable and uncountable, plural virgin births)

1. (biology) A birth (or vegetal reproduction) after spontaneous, unfertilized gamete-development in a virginal mother, parthenogenesis.
2. (often capitalized and used absolutely: the Virgin Birth) In Christian theology, the miraculous birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary.
   1. Any similar birth of a deity.
      • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 31:

        At the moment then when Sirius, the star from the East, by coming to the Meridian at midnight signalled the Sun's new birth, the Virgin was seen just rising on the Eastern sky - the horizon line passing through her centre. And many people think that this astronomical fact is the explanation of the very widespread legend of the Virgin-birth.

3. Childbirth in which the offspring is said to have been conceived without sexual intercourse.

   Many religions and traditions have myths about a virgin birth.

   Oh, you never let the cat out? Then I suppose those kittens were a virgin birth.

4. Childbirth in which the mother conceived the child through artificial insemination.

Translations

birth in a virginal mother; parthenogenesis

• Dutch: maagdelijke geboorte
• Finnish: neitseellinen lisääntyminen
• German: Jungfernzeugung f, Jungferngeburt f
• Japanese: 処女懐胎 (しょじょかいたい, shojo kaitai)

birth through artificial insemination

the birth of Christ

• Danish: jomfrufødsel c
• Faroese: moyggjarburður
• Finnish: neitseestä syntyminen
• German: Jungfrauengeburt f
• Icelandic: meyfæðing f
• Japanese: 処女懐胎 (しょじょかいたい, shojo kaitai)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jomfrufødsel

  Nynorsk: jomfrufødsel

• Swedish: jungfrufödsel c