Re: confession: roots

From: "Roger Mills" <romilly@...>
> Rik Roots and others wrote:
> >> Muke Tever wrote:
> >> > And there's a question for the list, which I forgot if I've asked
> already.  Is
> >> > there a simple active verb in English meaning 'to be born' ?
> >>
> >> Not that I know of, but I have heard constructions like "borning cry" to
> >> mean "a child's first cry after being born", essentially treating "born"
> >> as an active verb, but I don't know if that's an exception or a
> >> preservation of an archaic verb.
> >>
> >In polite society, people tend to "have" babies in hospitals.
> >
> >More colloquially, mothers will "sprog" when the time comes.
> >
> >"sprog" also acts as a euphamism for "kid", but is less pleasant.>
>
> Is this too obvious:  _to bear, bore, borne_?  Presumably "born" is the same
> root?
It's the same root, but the wrong meaning.  I needed a verb meaning 'to _be_
born', meaning 'to come into the world'--which is what the baby does--but 'to
bear' is what the mother does, and doesn't help at all.

['Born' as a verb isn't helpful either, because it hasn't got a useful passive.]

     *Muke!

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