pregnant

English

Alternative forms

• prægnant (obsolete)
• pregnaunt (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛɡnənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡnənt

Etymology 1

From Middle English preignant, from Old French preignant, pregnant, also prenant (compare archaic Modern French prégnant), and their source, Latin praegnāns (“pregnant”), probably from prae- (“pre-”) + *gnāscī, an archaic form of nāscī (“to be born”). Displaced Old English bearnēacen (literally "child-enlarged").

Adjective

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

1. (chiefly not comparable) Carrying developing offspring within the body.
   • 2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time‎:

     Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.

   I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m pregnant!

   1. Of a couple: expecting a baby together.

      We are pregnant.

2. (comparable) Having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.

   a pregnant pause

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     wherein the pregnant enemy does much

   • 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:

     The many tear-jerkers deal with finality, with death and the end of love, with a stoicism pregnant with feeling.

3. (poetic) Fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.

4. (obsolete) Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     play at subtill games; faire vertues all;
     To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant

5. (obsolete) Ready-witted; clever; ingenious.

Synonyms

• (carrying offspring (standard)): expecting, expecting a baby, expectant, gravid (of animals only), with child, fertilized
• (carrying offspring (colloquial/slang)): eating for two, having a bun in the oven, in a family way, knocked up, preggers, up the duff, up the spout
• (carrying offspring (euphemistic)): in an interesting condition, in a family way
• (having many possibilities or implications): meaningful, significant
• See also Thesaurus:pregnant

Hyponyms

• (carrying developing offspring): in trouble

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

pregnant (plural pregnants)

1. A pregnant person.
   • 1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions:

     The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement

Translations

Etymology 2

Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).

Adjective

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

1. (now rare) Compelling; clear, evident.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., , →OCLC:

     Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pregnant, from Old French pregnant, from Latin praegnāns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /prɛxˈnɑnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: preg‧nant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

Adjective

pregnant (comparative pregnanter, superlative pregnantst)

1. poignant, incisive
2. meaningful, polysemic
3. (obsolete) important

Inflection

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German prägnant and French prégnant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /preɡˈnant/
• Rhymes: -ant
• Hyphenation: preg‧nant

Adjective

pregnant m or n (feminine singular pregnantă, masculine plural pregnanți, feminine and neuter plural pregnante)

1. (literary) evident, marked, manifest

   Synonym: (literary) vădit

Declension

References

• pregnant in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Swedish

Adjective

pregnant (comparative pregnantare, superlative pregnantast)

1. pregnant (clear and pithy, of an expression, language, or the like)
2. striking (distinctive, pronounced)

Usage notes

Pregnant as in carrying a baby is gravid (of a human) or dräktig (of an animal).

Declension

References

• pregnant in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pregnant in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• pregnant in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)