The Fruitful Words of Obstetrics

摘要

Each clinical discipline in medicinepossesses its distinctive history, cultural milieuand terminology. Obstetrics is nodifferent with its abundance of words pertainingto pregnancy and childbirth:terms such as gravid, gestating, parturient,fecund and pregnant.Gravid is derived from the Latingravidus meaning heavy (with child). Cognatewords, such as gravity, gravitas andgrave emphasize the weightiness while ignoringits obstetrical meaning. Isaac Newtoncoined the verb “gravitate,” in thesense of moving toward something, todescribe his theory of gravity, while gravyis an Old English word that is ultimatelytraced to the Latin, granum [grains].