different between womb vs thigh

English

Alternative forms

• wame (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *wamb? (“belly, stomach, abdomen”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame (“womb”), Dutch wam (“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), 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 ??? (vap??, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”). Superseded non-native Middle English mater, matere (“womb”) and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin m?ter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wu?m/
• Rhymes: -u?m

Noun

womb (plural wombs)

1. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. [from 8^thc.]
2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8^th-17^thc.]

   • And his hede, hym semed,was enamyled with asure, and his shuldyrs shone as the golde, and his wombe was lyke mayles of a merveylous hew […].

3. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. [8^th-18^thc.]
4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15^thc.]

   • The womb of earth the genial seed receives.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 7

     The shadows of the future hours rose dark and menacing from the womb of time [...]

5. Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, Popularity

     The centre spike of gold / Which burns deep in the blue-bell's womb.

Synonyms

• (organ in mammals): uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

Derived terms

• wombless
• womblike
• wombly
• wombman
• wombmate
• womby

Related terms

Translations

Verb

womb (third-person singular simple present wombs, present participle wombing, simple past and past participle wombed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.

References

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “womb”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Middle English

Noun

womb

1. Alternative form of wombe

English

Etymology

From Middle English thigh, thegh, thi?, the?he, þigh, þy?h, from Old English þ?oh, þ?oh, from Proto-Germanic *þeuh? (compare West Frisian tsjea, Dutch dij, Middle High German diech, Icelandic þjó), from Proto-Indo-European *tewk- (compare Irish tóin (“hind, rump”), Lithuanian táukas (“fat”), Russian ??? (tuk, “animal fat”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Noun

thigh (plural thighs)

1. The upper leg of a human, between the hip and the knee. [from 8th c.]
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:

     I coniure thee by Rosalines bright eyes, By her High forehead, and her Scarlet lip, By her Fine foote, Straight leg, and Quiuering thigh, And the Demeanes, that there Adiacent lie, That in thy likenesse thou appeare to vs.

   • 1800, Jane Austen, letter, 8 Nov 1800:

     About ten days ago, in cocking a pistol in the guard-room at Marcau, he accidentally shot himself through the Thigh.

   • 1991, Kathy Lette, The Llama Parlour:

     ‘Why not pay up now, kiddo?’ he suggested magnanimously, patting me on the thigh.

   • 2011, The Guardian, 31 Mar 2011:

     The 23-year-old was substituted in the 75th minute of France's goalless friendly draw with Croatia on Tuesday after suffering an injury to his thigh.

2. That part of the leg of vertebrates (or sometimes other animals) which corresponds to the human thigh in position or function; the tibia of a horse, the tarsus of a bird; the third leg-section of an insect. [from 14th c.]
   • 2009, Fred Thompson, Grillin' with Gas:

     Add the chicken thighs, close the bag, and squish the marinade to coat the chicken.

   • 2011, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 23 Feb 2011:

     The newly discovered dinosaur Brontomerus mcintoshi may have used its huge muscular thighs to kick predators and rivals.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Hight, hight

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /h??/
• (Connacht, Ulster) IPA^(key): /hi?/

Noun

thigh

1. Lenited form of tigh.

Middle English

Noun

thigh (plural thighes)

1. Alternative spelling of þigh (“thigh”)