| 释义 |
▪ I. midwife, n.|ˈmɪdwaɪf|
Forms: 4 medewife, -wyve, meedwijf, midewyve, midwiif, mydwijf, -wyffe, 4–5 midwyf, 4–6 medwyf(e, mydwife, -wyf(e, 5 medwif(e, myddewyffe, mydewyf, mydwif, -wyff, 5–6 midwyfe, 6 mede wif, meyd vyf, 4– midwife.
[f. either mid a. or mid prep. (adv.) + wife (in the older sense of ‘woman’). On the former view the primary sense would be ‘a woman by whose means the delivery is effected’; on the latter view, ‘a woman who is with the mother at the birth’. The latter seems the more likely, though analogies are wanting for this mode of formation. The Sp. comadre, which is sometimes quoted, is not to the point, as the sense ‘midwife’ is merely developed from that of ‘gossip’, originally ‘fellow-(god)mother’. The mod.G. beifrau, midwife's assistant, has also been compared.
The early (but not earliest) form medewife seems to be due to etymologizing association with meed n., as mede- does not otherwise occur as a ME. variant of mid-. The colloquial pronunciation |ˈmɪdɪf| is now seldom heard.]
1. A woman who assists other women in childbirth, a female accoucheur.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 9633 Þe prest askede þe mydwyffe, Ȝyfe hyt were cristenede whan hyt hade lyffe. a1400Maria Magd. 78 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. XCI. 219 In alle my grete sorowe of my trauail of childe thou were to me a mydwife. c1400Arth. & Merl. 1001 (Kölbing), Ful glad was þo þe medwif And tok þeo child al so blyue. 1486Materials Hist. Hen. VII (Rolls) II. 65 Alice Massy..medwif to our derest wif the quene. 1502Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1900) II. 47 Item..to the mede wif, xlij s. 1549Compl. Scot. xv. 129 His mother vas ane meyd vyf. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 54, I see Queene Mab hath beene with you: She is the Fairies Midwife. 1615Crooke Body of Man 269 Adde hereto the skilfull hand of the heads-woman or Midwife as we cal them. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 104 Women, in these circumstances, are said, by the midwives, to be all mouth and eyes. 1839F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia (1863) 28 A ludicrous visit this morning from the midwife of the estate.
†2. = man-midwife. Obs.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 139 It behooueth the shepehearde to be skilfull in medcening of his cattell, and so cunning a midwife withal, as if neede require he may helpe his Ewe. 1711Swift Jrnl. to Stella 29 Apr., The Admiral is your Walker's brother the midwife. 1770Phil. Trans. LX. 451 Mr. John Latham, Surgeon and Midwife.
3. fig. One who or that which helps to produce or bring anything to birth.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. ii. 62 So Greene, thou art the midwife of my woe, And Bullinbrooke my sorrowes dismall heyre. 1658Osborn Adv. Son (1896) p. xxvii, There is another piece of mine ready to peep abroad, but that Mr. Wood, my Midwife, is so taken up with raising an estate in Ireland, as he cannot attend the press. 1700Dryden Pal. & Arc. ii. 562 And Midwife Time the ripen'd Plot to Murder brought. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 10 June, Let. i, This midwife of the Muses used exercise on horseback. 1883J. T. Morse Jefferson iii. (1885) 39 Jefferson..had acted as undertaker for the royal colonies and as midwife for the United States of America.
†4. An effeminate man. Obs.
1596Drayton Mortimeriados T, No Apish fan-bearing Hermophradite, Coch-carried midwyfe, weake, effeminate.
5. midwife toad, a European toad, Alytes obstetricans, the male of which cares for the eggs until they hatch.
1901H. Gadow in Cambr. Nat. Hist. VIII. vi. 158 A[lytes] obstetricans, the ‘Midwife-toad’, has the general appearance of a smooth toad... The pairing and the peculiar mode of taking care of the eggs by the male..has given it the specific name obstetricans, the midwife. 1934Times Lit. Suppl. 16 June p. iv/2 A number of interesting toads have been received lately at the London Zoo, including a collection from Germany of 20 midwife toads with their eggs. 1954G. Durrell Three Singles to Adventure viii. 180 The midwife toad of Europe, instead of leaving its eggs in the nearest water to hatch unattended, hands them over to the male, who winds them round his hind legs and carries them about until they hatch. 1971Koestler Case of Midwife Toad i. 14 Kammerer's undoing was a grotesque amphibian creature: the midwife toad, Alytes obstetricans.
▪ II. midwife, v. Now rare exc. in 2 b.|ˈmɪdwaɪf|
Also midwive.
[f. midwife n.]
1. trans. To act as midwife to.
1674Brevint Saul at Endor iv. 86 Whil'st she is elsewhere..in a rich Abby Mid-wiving an Abbess, whom her Steward had unfortunately gotten with Child.
2. a. To help in bringing (a child) to the birth by acting the part of a midwife. Also with out.
1638Bp. H. King in Sandys Div. Poems To Author 34 This Child of yours, borne without spurious blot, And Fairely Midwivd, as it was begot. 1653in Verney Mem. (1894) III. 203 Madcapp saith though she sould you the mare, yett she did not sell you the colt, therefore she laies her commands on you, to midwife it out, and to tittle it upp. 1708T. Ward Eng. Ref. (1710) 2 So Jove himself..Bred in his Head his Daughter Pallas, Whom Vulcan Midwiv'd [etc.]. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict. iv. s.v. Pallas, The daughter of Jupiter's own brain,..and midwived by Vulcan.
b. fig. To help in bringing to light or into being. (This sense not rare.)
1647Ward Simp. Cobler (1843) 6 That he might watch a time to midwife out some ungracious Toleration for his own turne. 1725Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 124, I have something runs in my Mind, and I'm with Child to have it out... If it be a Dream, you shall be the Interpreters, or midwife it into the World. 1829Lamb Let. to H. C. Robinson 27 Feb., Expectation was alert on the receipt of your strange-shaped present, while yet undisclosed from its fusc envelope... When midwifed into daylight, the gossips were at a loss to pronounce upon its species. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Dec. 709/3 It also midwifed the late editor of Commentary himself, Elliot E. Cohen. 1971B. Malamud Tenants 83 Lesser, dreaming of new light in his book, beheld in his dark thoughts Bill Spear, potential executioner, requesting him to midwife his bloody fable. 1972Sunday Tel. 30 Apr. 7/7 As befitted the man who midwived ‘That Was The Week That Was’, Sir Hugh also got the best laugh at the Colonels' expense.
Hence ˈmidwifing vbl. n.
1382Wyclif Exod. i. 19 Thei forsothe han the kunnyng of mydwyuyng [Vulg. ipsæ enim obstetricandi habent scientiam]. 1750Warburton in W. & Hurd's Lett. (1809) 47 Where was the Genius loci of the school when this disaster happened! perhaps in the office of Diana when her Temple was a burning, gone a midwifing to some Minerva of the brain. |