Does such a word exist?
It has occurred to me that the "woman" part is redundant, since only women can be pregnant (except for Arnold Schwarzanegger in Junior)
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3"only women can be pregnant" — Well, so can cows, cats, and so on.– ShreevatsaRDec 16, 2011 at 11:52
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1Sex-wise, actually. Gender's a bit more fluid.– user13141Dec 16, 2011 at 12:00
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True. "Gender-wise" only women can be pregnant. Although In most circumstances it would come up, the species is implied– UrbycozDec 16, 2011 at 12:03
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4I'd rather say pregnant woman is the "norm". But I don't think it's "redundant" as one might want to use woman as opposed to child or teenager. One usually says a pregnant child or a pregnant teenager, without specifying the gender.– NoneDec 16, 2011 at 12:14
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1@Mr.Wizard more due to people abiding by the law and social norms, than medical conditions. A newspaper would refer to a pregnant 11 year old as a "pregnant child" -- or even an older girl, for impact. abcnews.go.com/Health/… . The point Laure is making though, is that "child" and "teenager" are gender-neutral, yet are the words we would choose.– slimDec 16, 2011 at 17:00
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7 Answers
Primagravida is a medical term for somebody pregnant for the first time, and multigravida is in the OED for somebody pregnant not for the first time, so you could coin gravida, I suppose. But in normal usage, I'd say there is no such noun.
answered Dec 16, 2011 at 12:33
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3The noun gravida for a "pregnant female" is mentioned in (Wikipedia)[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy], in the online edition of the Merriam Webster, in the (Free Dictionary)[thefreedictionary.com/gravida] and in the paper editions of Webster's third International Dictionary and in Longman's Dictionary of the English Language. I did not find it in the OED or in the BBC English Dictionary.– NoneDec 16, 2011 at 15:36
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"gravida" is a medical term for a pregnant woman. "gravid" is an adjective meaning "pregnant". (I don't know why doctors need another word to mean pregnant, but whatever.) Both words would be recognized by doctors, but probably pretty much no one else. What's wrong with simply saying "pregnant woman"?– JayApr 23, 2012 at 14:21
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2@Jay I don’t think gravid for pregnant is so rare as to be unrecognized outside of medicine.– tchrist ♦Oct 25, 2012 at 0:08
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@tchrist I've never seen it used by other than doctors and nurses in a medical context, but of course I can't speak to professions or social circles other than my own, etc.– JayOct 25, 2012 at 14:20
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(Tradition and professional pride probably dictate using gravid rather than pregnant. But as it can be a sensitive topic, using "gravid" about a patient would probably go unnoticed in a hospital whereas "pregnant" might raise unwelcome curiosity among other visitors or patients.)– HughApr 23, 2014 at 6:07
If you can accept a hyphenated phrase, then mum-to-be or mother-to-be are quite common.
(Or mom-to-be in the USA, I presume?)
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1I've also heard people use "the expecting", but I think it's a rather obnoxious-sounding term.– user13141Dec 16, 2011 at 12:15
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That would also include women who are about to adopt a child, wouldn't it? Dec 2, 2018 at 10:10
Extremely informally, people may say a "preggo"
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I think it is more than extremely informal; a search on Yahoo Answers of "preggo" shows it was used in 21700 questions Dec 16, 2011 at 22:14
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6Ye gods, but I hate that "word".– user362Dec 28, 2011 at 13:48
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2Around here, that's more than informal, it's offensive. Less offensive as an adjective however. Consider en.wiktionary.org/wiki/preggo.– MerkOct 19, 2012 at 21:34
The OED records pregnant as a noun as well as an adjective, with the meaning ‘a pregnant woman’, with three citations from the twentieth century alone. I wouldn’t say it was in common use though.
answered Dec 16, 2011 at 11:29
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4Really? It makes sense, but it just sounds so very wrong: "Please avoid heavy lifting if you are a pregnant."– UrbycozDec 16, 2011 at 11:47
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1@Urbycoz: The twentieth century citations show the usage in medical contexts. As I said, not, in my experience, common. Dec 16, 2011 at 11:52
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3@onomatomaniak: that's more like a mass noun than in Urbycoz's "Please avoid heavy lifting if you are a pregnant." Where idiomatic use would drop the a. Dec 16, 2011 at 12:19
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3@Barrie: Which is why I made the comment here, not on Linguistics.SE. English is not a science, and sounding awful is a valid usage note.– RobustoDec 16, 2011 at 13:45
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The real frain is whether such a word is needed.
OE had byrþestre (e) f. female carrier. So I guess a modern version could be: birthster.
I haven't ever heard anybody use it in conversation, but venter means a pregnant woman.
EDIT: In response to the comment by jwpat and the upvoters: Here is a link, and here is another.(In the first link, do a Ctrl+F and look up definition 6)
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5Among links from your link, none of wiktionary, thefreedictionary, or medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary support that usage. The last refers to "the abdomen, the uterus"; the second gives "in venter, Law, conceived but not yet born"; and the first gives the close-but-not-quite "A woman with offspring". Can you point to a specific reference instead of an inconclusive search page, and incorporate part of the result into your answer? Dec 16, 2011 at 18:48
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@jwpat: done. Here's another link: webster-dictionary.net/definition/Venter Dec 17, 2011 at 6:34
A bold use of the word Alpha-bitch or even Queen might suffice.
Mums-to-be could also be known as 'Ovens' or 'Hosts' (depending on whether the baby is referred to as a bun or a parasite).
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1This answer might be improved by pointing out that these choices are likely to be found offensive.– jejorda2May 11, 2015 at 19:00