womb

Meanings

Noun

• In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus.
• The abdomen or stomach.
• The stomach of a person or creature.
• A place where something is made or formed.
• Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.

Verb

• To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.

Related

Similar words

• uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

Origin

• From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb, from Proto-Germanic *wambō ("belly, stomach, abdomen"). Cognate with Scots wam, wame, Dutch wam ("dewlap of beef; belly of a fish"), German Wamme, Wampe, Danish vom ("belly, paunch, rumen"), Swedish våmb ("belly, stomach, rumen"), Norwegian vom ("rumen"), Icelandic vömb ("belly, abdomen, stomach"), Old Welsh gumbelauc ("womb"), Breton gwamm ("woman, wife"), Sanskrit वपा ("the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum"). Superseded non-native Middle English mater, matere and matris, matrice borrowed from Latin māter and Old French matrice, respectively.