nursery
Meanings
noun
- A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on.
- Especially in European countries: a room or area in a household set apart for the care of children.
- An institution for small children who not yet have begun primary school during daytime (when their parents work); a daycare centre.
- The first year of pre-school.
- A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted.
- A place where animals breed, or where young animals are naturally or artificially reared (for example, on a farm).
- A place where young shrubs, trees, vines, etc., are cultivated for transplanting, or (more generally) made available for public sale, a garden centre; also (obsolete) a plantation of young trees.
- A club or team for developing the skills of young players.
- Something which educates and nurtures.
- Ellipsis of nursery cannon (“a carom shot involving balls that are very close together”).
- Someone or something that is nursed; a nursling.
- The act of nursing or rearing.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nurse + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘place of’).
Synonyms
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Translations
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