名詞 midwife:

1. a woman skilled in aiding the delivery of babies
   同義詞：accoucheuse

1. The bus conductor became the man of the moment when he acted as midwife to a woman who gave birth to a baby on his bus.
   當(dāng)這個(gè)公共汽車售票員為一個(gè)在車上生產(chǎn)的婦女接生時(shí)，他曾名噪一時(shí)。
2. The midwife delivered the baby.
   助產(chǎn)士接生下這個(gè)嬰兒
3. The techniques and practice of a midwife.
   助產(chǎn)學(xué)，產(chǎn)科學(xué)助產(chǎn)士的技術(shù)及工作

mid.wife

n.（名詞）
【復(fù)數(shù)】 mid.wives[-wovz.]
A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth.Also called Regional granny
助產(chǎn)士，接生員，產(chǎn)婆：在婦女臨產(chǎn)時(shí)為其接生的人，通常為婦女也作 【區(qū)域的】 granny
One who assists in or takes a part in bringing about a result:
促成者：幫助或參與促成某一結(jié)果的人：
例句：
.In the Renaissance, artists and writers start to serve as midwives of fame.(Carlin Romano)
.在文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期，藝術(shù)家和作家開(kāi)始成為有聲望的人.(卡林·羅馬諾)

v.tr.（及物動(dòng)詞）
mid.wifed 或 mid.wived [-wovd.] mid.wif.ing 或 mid.wiv.ing [-wo.vng] mid.wifes 或 mid.wives [-wovz.]
To assist in the birth of (a baby).
接生：幫助（胎兒）出生
To assist in bringing forth or about:
促成：幫助促成…的產(chǎn)生：
例句：
.Washington`s efforts to midwife a Mideast settlement.(Newsweek)
.華盛頓方面努力促成中東問(wèn)題的解決.(新聞周刊)

來(lái)源：
Middle English midwof
中古英語(yǔ) midwof
probably mid [with] from Old English * see me- 2
可能為 mid [和…一起] 源自 古英語(yǔ) *參見(jiàn) me- 2
wif [woman] from Old English wof
wif [婦女] 源自 古英語(yǔ) wof

<注釋>The wordmidwife is the sort of word whose etymology is perfectly clear until one tries to figure it out.Wife would seem to refer to the woman giving birth, who is usually a wife,butmid ô A knowledge of older senses of words helps us with this puzzle.Wife in its earlier history meant .woman,. as it still did when the compoundmidwife was formed in Middle English (first recorded around 300). Mid is probably a preposition, meaning .together with..Thus amidwife was literally a .with woman. or .a woman who assists other women in childbirth.. Even though obstetrics has been rather resistant to midwifery until fairly recently,the etymology ofobstetric is rather similar, going back to the Latin wordobstetrox, .a midwife,. from the verbobst3re, .to stand in front of,. and the feminine suffix -trix; theobstetrox would thus literally stand in front of the baby.
單詞midwife 屬于那類語(yǔ)源看起來(lái)相當(dāng)明了的詞， 可當(dāng)人們?cè)囍闱宄r(shí)，才發(fā)現(xiàn)并不那么簡(jiǎn)單。Wife 似乎是指臨產(chǎn)的婦女， 通常都身為人婦，但是mid 指的是什么呢？ 通過(guò)了解詞語(yǔ)原有的含義我們可以解開(kāi)這個(gè)謎。Wife 早期時(shí)意指.婦女.， 當(dāng)midwife 這個(gè)復(fù)合詞在中古英語(yǔ)中形成的時(shí)候它仍然有此含義（首次記載于300年前后）。 Mid 有可能是個(gè)介詞， 意為.與…在一起.。這樣midwife 字面上的意思就是.與婦女在一起.或者.幫助臨產(chǎn)婦女生產(chǎn)的婦女.。 雖然直到近期產(chǎn)科學(xué)還一直抵制助產(chǎn)術(shù)一詞，但是obstetric 的語(yǔ)源卻與其很相似。 它可以上溯到拉丁詞語(yǔ)obstetrix 意為.接生者.， 該詞由動(dòng)詞obstare .站在…的前面.再加上陰性后綴 -trix 構(gòu)成； 于是obstetrix 這個(gè)詞字面上的意思是站在嬰兒前面的人