different between foster vs comfort

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f?st?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f?st?/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /?f?st?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English foster, from Old English f?stor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-Germanic *f?str? (“nourishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).

Adjective

foster (not comparable)

1. Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.

   foster parents

2. Receiving such care.

   a foster child

3. Related by such care.

   We are a foster family.

Translations

Noun

foster (countable and uncountable, plural fosters)

1. (countable, informal) A foster parent.

   Some fosters end up adopting.

2. (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship.

Verb

foster (third-person singular simple present fosters, present participle fostering, simple past and past participle fostered)

1. (transitive) To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
2. (transitive) To cultivate and grow something.
3. (transitive) To nurse or cherish something.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.

Antonyms

• (cultivate and grow): hinder

Derived terms

Usage notes

Modern English makes a distinction between fostering (which is implied to be temporary or informal) and adopting (which is permanent and makes the child legally recognized as part of the family). In older usage the two terms were more interchangeable.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

foster (plural fosters)

1. (obsolete) A forester.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

Anagrams

• Forest, Forets, Fortes, fetors, forest, forset, fortes, fortés, froste, softer

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”)

Noun

foster n (singular definite fostret or fosteret, plural indefinite fostre)

1. fetus

Inflection

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse fóstr

Noun

foster n (definite singular fosteret or fostret, indefinite plural foster or fostre, definite plural fostra or fostrene)

1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

Derived terms

• fostervann

Related terms

• embryo

References

• “foster” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse fóstr

Noun

foster n (definite singular fosteret, indefinite plural foster, definite plural fostera)

1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

Related terms

• embryo

References

• “foster” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Alternative forms

• f?ster, f?stor, f?stur

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *f?str?, from Proto-Indo-European *peh?- (“to protect”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fo?s.ter/

Noun

f?ster n

1. fostering, nourishing, rearing, feeding
2. food, nourishment, provisions

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Middle English: foster
  • English: foster

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “f?ster”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?st?r/

Noun

foster n

1. fetus

Declension

Related terms

• fosterbror
• fosterfördrivning
• fosterhem
• fostersyster
• fostra

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English conforten, from Old French conforter, from Late Latin confort? (“to strengthen greatly”), itself from Latin con- (“together”) + fortis (“strong”).

The noun is from Middle English confort, from Old French cunfort, confort, from the stem of Late Latin confort?. It replaced Old English frofor, Middle English frovre.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/
• (General American) enPR: k?m'f?rt, IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/, [?k???.f?t]
• (obsolete) enPR: k?mfôrt', IPA^(key): /k?m?f??t/

Noun

comfort (countable and uncountable, plural comforts)

1. Contentment, ease.

2. Something that offers comfort.

3. A consolation; something relieving suffering or worry.

4. A cause of relief or satisfaction.

Synonyms

• liss

Antonyms

• (contentment, ease): austerity

Translations

Verb

comfort (third-person singular simple present comforts, present participle comforting, simple past and past participle comforted)

1. (transitive) To relieve the distress or suffering of; to provide comfort to.
2. (transitive) To make comfortable. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (obsolete) To make strong; to invigorate; to fortify; to corroborate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     God's own testimony […] doth not a little comfort and confirm the same.

4. (obsolete) To assist or help; to aid.

Synonyms

• besoothe

Translations

Derived terms

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch confoort, from Old French confort.

Pronunciation

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /k?m?f??r/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /k?m?f?r(t)/
• Hyphenation: com?fort

Noun

comfort n (plural comforts, diminutive comfortje n)

1. Physical comfort, ease.

Derived terms

• comfortabel
• ligcomfort
• rijcomfort
• zitcomfort