couvade
[koo-vahd; French koo-vad]
- a practice among some peoples, as the Basques of Spain, in which a man, immediately preceding the birth of his child, takes to his bed in an enactment of the birth experience and subjects himself to various taboos usually associated with pregnancy.
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Origin of couvade
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for couvade
Historical Examples
I refer to the custom of so-called father-confinement or 'couvade.'
Elements of Folk PsychologyWilhelm Wundt
Couvade, the, among the Indians of South America, 152 et seq.
Up the Orinoco and down the MagdalenaH. J. Mozans
Either origin of the Couvade is consistent with early beliefs and customs.
Aucassin and NicoleteAndrew Lang
It is curious that in India itself so few actual instances of the Couvade have been discovered.
Those who would know more may consult an Encyclopaedia, under the heading ‘Couvade.’
The Woodlands OrchidsFrederick Boyle
couvade
- anthropol a custom in certain cultures of treating the husband of a woman giving birth as if he were bearing the child
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Word Origin
C19: from French, from couver to hatch, from Latin cubāre to lie down
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
couvade
(kōō-väd′)- A practice in certain non-Western cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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