different between womb vs womby

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 Superseded non-native Middle English mater, matere (“womb”) and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin m?ter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.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 womby, equivalent to womb +? -y.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -u?mi

Adjective

womby (comparative more womby, superlative most womby)

1. (obsolete) capacious