Definitions for couvade

• Definition
• Anagrams (136)

couvade cou·vade

Spelling: [koo-vahd; French koo-vad]

IPA: /kuˈvɑd; French kuˈvad/

Couvade is a 7 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 13 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 16 points.

You can make 136 anagrams from letters in couvade (acdeouv).

Definitions for couvade

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.

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.

Examples for couvade

The couvade in which the husband pretends to lie in, while his wife is really doing so.

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

couvade, the, among the Indians of South America, 152 et seq.

The custom of the couvade, attributed by Strabo to the Cantabri, is unknown among the modern Basques.

I refer to the custom of so-called father-confinement or 'couvade.'

The following legend is current among the Koramas, to explain the practice of the couvade among them.

The custom of the couvade may therefore perhaps be assigned to the early patriarchal stage.

Sir John Lubbock would account for the curious and widely spread custom of the couvade as a feature of this change.

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.’