Pregnancy: carried before birth

‘In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”’

A short look at where the word ‘pregnancy’ comes from. The English form grew out of Latin and kept its first sense of ‘carrying before birth’. Other languages picture the idea through weight, enclosure, and taking together. The Greek of Luke’s Gospel uses a verb built from ‘to take’ and ‘together’, and that structure still shapes the meaning. The image is an early scan of my oldest son.

Each word card set begins with an image that captures the theme of the word. The following cards trace its story: a main word card (or two, if extended), a junior version with a paler border, an etymological breakdown showing how the word travelled through time, and a list of sources. Some sets also include cards for related words or translations across other languages. Together they show where each word came from, how it changed, and what it still carries with it.