What is the Etymology of the Word Child?

etymology of the word child

Does the term “etymology” mean anything to you?
Put simply, it is the study of the origin of words and the ways in which their meanings have changed and developed over the course of the centuries.
An etymologist, therefore, is someone who looks at individual words or sometimes phrases and expressions, and tries to trace where they have come from.
A parenting site cannot be complete without reference to what makes us parents: our children, of course. Children fill our days – when we are not with them, we think about them.
What of the etymology of the word child itself? Where does it come from, and has it ever meant anything different?

How To Be a Good Host

Following on from our How to Be a Good Houseguest advice, here’s the other side of the coin. How to be a good host!

Bilingualism and Special Needs

bilingualism and special needs

The third in our series on bilingualism by Millie Slavidou deals with bilingualism and special needs. If you missed the first two parts, you can find them here – 7 Reasons to Bring up Your Kids Bilingual and Supporting Bilingualism in Tweens and Teens.

Parents of children with special needs frequently find they need to grow a thick skin to deal with all the ignorance and comments directed at them, and this is especially true in a bilingual family. As a mother of a child with special needs myself, bringing him up in a bilingual family has been a challenge. I have been accused of deliberately trying to sabotage his development through speaking my own language to him!

Adventures in Parenting – Raising a Confident Child

When Lynn Schreiber, our esteemed editor and chief, asked me to write a piece about how to raise a confident child I sort of went:  um, I dunno!

My son is, after all, not quite six and recently diagnosed with ASD.

But he is, despite not being quite six and with ASD, very confident.

Now to figure out how I did that.

Being an Extrovert Parent to an Introvert Child

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?* Jo is the latter, and her daughter the former. She writes for us today to tell us what it is like being an extrovert parent to an introvert child.

Being a Non-Resident Mother – Lyndsey’s Story

When a couple split up, the divvying up of possessions starts. He gets the sofa, she gets the dining table and chairs. Neither of them really want the vase they got as a wedding present from Great Aunt Issy, and there is a short disagreement about the artwork they bought on honeymoon. Deciding who gets what is the easy part – where it gets really difficult, and often distressing is when it comes to the children.

In 90% of the cases, the children stay with their mother. Like it or not, our society is built on mothers being the main care-givers, regardless if they are doing this alone or with the support of a partner. What does it feel like to be one of the 10% – the non-resident mother. Lyndsey knows only too well, and has agreed to share her experiences with us.