Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

couvade

[koo-vahd; French koo-vad]
noun
  1. 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.
Show More

Origin of couvade

1860–65; < French (now obsolete), literally, a hatching, sitting on eggs, equivalent to couv(er) to hatch (< Latin cubāre to lie down) + -ade -ade1; cf. covey
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 Psychology

    Wilhelm Wundt

  • Couvade, the, among the Indians of South America, 152 et seq.

  • Either origin of the Couvade is consistent with early beliefs and customs.

  • 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 Orchids

    Frederick Boyle

British Dictionary definitions for couvade

couvade

noun
  1. anthropol a custom in certain cultures of treating the husband of a woman giving birth as if he were bearing the child
Show More

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 in Medicine

couvade

(kōō-väd′)
n.
  1. 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.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.