different between child vs spawn

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ch?ld, ch???ld, IPA^(key): /t??a?ld/, /?t??a?.?ld/
• Rhymes: -a?ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English child, from Old English ?ild (“fetus; female baby; child”), from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European *?elt- (“womb”). Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit ???? (jarta), ????? (jártu, “vulva”).

Alternative forms

• childe (archaic)
• (plural): childrens (intentionally incorrect, nonstandard); childs (nonstandard, rare)

Noun

child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)

1. A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority)
2. (obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.
3. (with possessive) One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; a son or daughter.

4. (cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
5. (figuratively) A figurative offspring, particularly:
   1. A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
   2. Anything derived from or caused by something.
   3. (computing) A data item, process, or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another.
      • 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed:

        The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).

6. Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”)
7. (mathematics) A subordinate node of a tree

Synonyms

• (young person): See Thesaurus:child, Thesaurus:boy, & Thesaurus:girl
• (offspring): See offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter, binary clone, progeny, hybrid
• (descendant): See descendant
• (product of a place or era): product, son (male), daughter (female)

Antonyms

• (daughter or son): father, mother, parent
• (person below the age of adulthood): adult
• (data item, process or object in a subordinate role): parent

Derived terms

Related terms

• chield
• Child
• childe
• Childermas

Translations

See also

• orling

Etymology 2

From Middle English childen, from the noun child.

Verb

child (third-person singular simple present childs, present participle childing, simple past and past participle childed)

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To give birth; to beget or procreate.

Translations

Further reading

• Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (accessed November 2007).
• American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company (2003).

Middle English

Alternative forms

• chyld, chylde, childe, chelde, cild

Etymology

From Old English ?ild, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i?ld/

Noun

child (plural children or childre or child or childres)

1. A baby, infant, toddler; a person in infancy.
2. A child, kid; a young person.
3. An offspring, one of one's progeny.
4. A childish or stupid individual.
5. (Chrisitanity) The Christ child; Jesus as a child.
6. (figuratively) A member of a creed (usually with the religion in the genitive preposing it)
7. A young male, especially one employed as an hireling.
8. A young noble training to become a knight; a squire or childe.
9. The young of animals or plants.
10. A material as a result or outcome.

Related terms

Descendants

• English: child
• Scots: child; chield

References

• “ch?ld, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp??n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Etymology 1

Recorded since 1413; from Middle English spawnen, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Old French espandre, from Latin expandere (“stretch out; spread out”, verb). Doublet of expand. Compare also Middle English spalden, spolden, spawden (“to cut open (a fish)”).

Verb

spawn (third-person singular simple present spawns, present participle spawning, simple past and past participle spawned)

1. (transitive) To produce or deposit (eggs) in water.
2. (transitive) To generate, bring into being, especially non-mammalian beings in very large numbers.
3. (transitive) To bring forth in general.

   The Web server spawns a new process to handle each client's request.

4. (transitive) To induce (aquatic organisms) to spawn.
5. (transitive) To plant with fungal spawn.
6. (intransitive) To deposit (numerous) eggs in water.
7. (intransitive) To reproduce, especially in large numbers.
8. (ergative, video games, of a character or object) (To cause) to appear spontaneously in a game at a certain point and time.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English spawne, from the verb (see above).

Noun

spawn (plural spawn or spawns)

1. The numerous eggs of an aquatic organism.
2. Mushroom mycelium prepared for (aided) propagation.
3. (by extension, sometimes derogatory) Any germ or seed, even a figurative source; offspring.
4. (horticulture) The buds or branches produced from underground stems.
5. (video games) The location in a game where characters or objects spontaneously appear.

Derived terms

• hellspawn

Translations

Anagrams

• WPANs, pawns