womb

English

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 वपा (vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”). Superseded non-native Middle English mater, matere (“womb”) and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin māter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /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 8^thc.]
2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8^th-17^thc.]
   • Template:RQ:Mlry MrtArthr1

     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. [8^th-18^thc.]
4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15^thc.]
   • (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The womb of earth the genial seed receives.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 7

     The shadows of the future hours rose dark and menacing from the womb of time [...]

5. Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
   • (Can we date this quote by Robert Browning and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The centre spike of gold / Which burns deep in the bluebell's womb.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• wombless
• womblike
• wombly
• wombman
• wombmate
• womby

Related terms

Etymologically related terms

• gambeson

Translations

uterus

• Afrikaans: baarmoeder
• Albanian: mitër (sq) f
• Arabic: رَحِم m (raḥim), بَيْت الْوَلِد m (bayt al-walid) (archaic)

  Moroccan Arabic: والدة f (wālda)

• Armenian: արգանդ (hy) (argand)
• Asturian: úteru (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: uşaqlıq
• Belarusian: ма́тка f (mátka), чэ́рава n (čérava)
• Bengali: জরায়ু (joraẏu)
• Breton: mamm (br) f
• Bulgarian: ма́тка f (mátka), утро́ба (bg) f (utróba)
• Burmese: သားအိမ် (my) (sa:im)
• Catalan: úter m, matriu (ca) f
• Central Melanau: peranakan
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 子宮／子宫 (zi² gung¹), 子宫 (zi² gung¹)

  Mandarin: 子宮／子宫 (zh) (zǐgōng), 子宫 (zh) (zǐgōng)

  Min Nan: 子宮／子宫 (zh-min-nan), 子宫 (chú-kiong), 生囝袋 (seⁿ-kiáⁿ-tē, siⁿ-kiáⁿ-tē)

• Classical Nahuatl: nānyōtl
• Czech: děloha (cs) f
• Danish: livmoder (da) c
• Dhivehi: ރަހިމު (rahimu)
• Dutch: baarmoeder (nl)
• Elfdalian: livmųoðer f
• Esperanto: utero
• Estonian: emakas
• Faroese: lívmóðir f
• Finnish: kohtu (fi)
• French: utérus (fr) m, ventre (fr) m, (archaic) matrice (fr) f, sein (fr) m, entrailles (fr) f pl
• Galician: útero (gl) m
• Georgian: საშვილოსნოს (sašvilosnos)
• German: (specific organ) Gebärmutter (de) f; (specialist also) Uterus (de) m; (pregnant body as the “seat of life”) Mutterleib (de) m, Schoß (de) m
• Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌼𐌱𐌰 f (wamba), 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 f (kilþei)
• Greek: μήτρα (el) f (mítra)

  Ancient: μήτρα f (mḗtra), ὑστέρα f (hustéra), δελφύς f (delphús)

• Greenlandic: illiaq
• Guaraní: (t-) ye
• Gujarati: ગર્ભાશય (garbhāśya)
• Hebrew: רֶחֶם \ רַחַם (he) m (rékhem, rákham)
• Hindi: गर्भ (hi) m (garbh), गर्भाशय (hi) m (garbhāśay)
• Hungarian: méh
• Icelandic: leg (is) n, móðurlíf (is) n
• Indonesian: rahim (id)
• Interlingua: utero, matrice
• Irish: broinn f
• Italian: utero (it) m, grembo (it) m
• Japanese: 子宮 (しきゅう, shikyū), 母胎 (ぼたい, botai)
• Kannada: ಗರ್ಭಕೋಶ (kn) (garbhakōśa)
• Kazakh: жатыр (jatyr)
• Khmer: ស្បូន (km) (sboun)
• Korean: 자궁 (ko) (jagung) (子宮 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: مِناڵدان (minalldan)

• Kyrgyz: жатын (ky) (jatın)
• Lao: ມົດລູກ (mot lūk)
• Latin: uterus m, uterum n
• Latvian: dzemde f
• Lithuanian: gimda f
• Luxembourgish: Matrice f, Gebärmutter f, Uterus m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: матка f (matka), утроба f (utroba)
• Malagasy: bobo (mg), fananahana (mg), vohoka (mg)
• Malay: rahim, peranakan, kandung, kandungan, uterus
• Malayalam: ഗർഭപാത്രം (gaṟbhapātraṁ)
• Maltese: ġuf m
• Manx: brein f
• Maori: wharekano, wharekākano, wharetangata
• Marathi: गर्भाशय (garbhāśay)
• Mongolian: сав (mn) (sav), умай (mn) (umaj), хэвлий (mn) (xevlii)
• Navajo: iishchʼid
• Nepali: पाठेघर (pāṭheghar)
• Northern Sami: mánágoahti, eatniheagga, goaŧŧu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: livmor m or f

  Nynorsk: livmor f

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: чрѣво n (črěvo)

• Old East Slavic: черево n (čerevo)
• Old English: innoþ m, cwiþ m, hrif n, ċildhama m
• Pashto: رحم (ps) m (rahém), توملنه f (tumlə́na), زيلان (ps) m (zilãn)
• Persian: رحم (fa) (rahem), زهدان (fa) (zehdân), زاقدان (fa) (zāqdān)
• Polish: macica (pl) f
• Portuguese: útero (pt) m, matriz (pt) f
• Quechua: kisma
• Romanian: uter (ro) n, matcă (ro) f
• Romansch: madra f, uterus m
• Russian: ма́тка (ru) f (mátka), утро́ба (ru) f (utróba), чре́во (ru) n (črévo)
• Rusyn: ма́тка f (mátka)
• Sanskrit: गर्भ (sa) m (garbha)
• Scottish Gaelic: machlag f, broinn f, brù f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: матерница f, материца f, утроба f

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

• Slovak: maternica (sk) f
• Slovene: maternica (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: maćernica f, rodźeńca f

• Spanish: útero (es) m, matriz (es) f
• Sranan Tongo: bere
• Sundanese: ᮕᮤᮃᮔᮊᮔ᮪ (pianakan)
• Swahili: uzazi (sw), tumbo (sw) class 5/6
• Swedish: livmoder (sv) c
• Tagalog: bahay-bata, sinapupunan, matris, utero (tl)
• Tajik: бачадон (bačadon), раҳим (rahim), заҳдон (zahdon)
• Tamil: கருப்பை (ta) (karuppai)
• Telugu: గర్భం (te) (garbhaṁ), గర్భాశయము (te) (garbhāśayamu)
• Thai: มดลูก (mót-lûuk)
• Tupinambá: ygé
• Turkish: rahim (tr), dölyatağı (tr), uterus (tr)
• Turkmen: ýatgy
• Ukrainian: ма́тка f (mátka), утро́ба f (utróba), че́рево n (čérevo)
• Urdu: گربھ m (garbh), رحم (rahim)
• Uyghur: بەچىدان (bechidan), قارىن (qarin), ماتكا (matka)
• Uzbek: bachadon (uz), matka
• Venetian: mare (vec) f (of a cow)
• Vietnamese: tử cung (vi) (子宮), dạ con
• Volapük: vüm (vo), motavüm
• Welsh: croth f

  Old Welsh: gumbelauc

• Yiddish: טראַכט f (trakht), מוטערטראַכט f (mutertrakht), הייבמוטער f (heybmuter)

figuratively: place where something is made or formed

• Czech: lůno (cs) n, kolébka (cs) f
• Finnish: kehto (fi)
• French: moule (fr) m, sein (fr) m
• Greek: μήτρα (el) f (mítra)
• Italian: grembo (it) m, seno (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: łono (pl) n
• Portuguese: útero (pt) m
• Russian: ло́но (ru) n (lóno), чре́во (ru) n (črévo), колыбе́ль (ru) f (kolybélʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: broinn f
• Slovak: lono f
• Spanish: cuna (es) 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?)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “womb”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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Middle English

Noun

womb

1. Alternative form of wombe