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"What was "so common" which would explain why there was no word to describe a parent who had lost a child?"
I interpreted the statement as meaning that "infant mortality" was "so common" that almost all parents fell into the category of "parents who had lost a child", and that there was therefore no need to differentiate among parents by coining a special word which would essentially apply to the majority of them. I'm not sure enough of the statistical basis for this statement (i.e., what percentage of parents suffered child loss during the "period of the development of the English language"), but the premise doesn't seem that far fetched to me.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the statistical basis for this statementApparently solid statistics weren't kept then, but this site seems to indicate that before the 20th century infant mortality ran around 200-300 per 1000 live births: http://www.pbs.org/fmc/timeline/dmortality.htm
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I happen to both understand and agree with Faldage's view. The number of families in which children died - and it was 17 in the case of Queen Anne, if my memory is not too faulty - prior to the 20th century was so high that it was something to be expected. Why no English word was coined to describe a parent who had lost a child is no clearer to me than to Faldage, but his explanation of why one may not have been required rings quite true.
For most of human history, infant mortality in the region of 25% seems to have been the norm. You bred four times to ensure three. Or something like that anyway!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In my historical interpretive studies for mid-19th Century American (US) life, the figure given for childhood mortality, under the age of ten, was 50%....so Americans, at that time, could expect to lose half their children before they were ten years old. A high childhood mortality rate was one of the reasons folks were given to raising such large families then (10 to 17 children were common)...the other being that, in a largely agrarian society, extra hands were needed to run the farm.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, *that and there really was no effective means of birth control and dag-nabit, the making is just too much fun
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nobody seems to ever ask "How many parents do you have", even though the time seems to be *ripe for it.
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As long as your ability to have more children isn't hindered what difference did it make if any died when loss is/was so *common.
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enthusiast
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before the 20th century infant mortality ran around 200-300 per 1000 live births
OK, now I get it. Thank you.
An interesting point. But it gives us only half an explanation. It explains why we did not have a word to describe such a parent over a hundred years ago, but it doesn't explain why we have no word for such a parent today. New words come into the language all the time. That's why I lean toward Hawaii's explanation. It covers both time periods, then and now.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, *that and there really was no effective means of birth control and dag-nabit, the making is just too much funYep, Connie...and most women in those days were almost continually pregnant from the time they first wed (many as young as 14 or 15) to the time they reached menopause (usually around 40 or so). Fun, eh, ladies? That is, of course, unless they decided to refrain from their "fun" for awhile. I guess that's why brothels were viewed as a "necessary evil" where gentrified gentlemen could partake of their pleasures without worrying about impregnating their wives. Brothels were the "birth control" of the day, if you will. And a strange, and never-spoken-about, double standard in a supposedly rigorously religious society. Of course the less-monied, the poor, and the farmers couldn't afford this option. But one does wonder when they found time among the rural set, since many of the farm families shared one large bed with the mother and father in the middle and the children, according to age, next to them, the daughters next to Mom and the sons next to Dad. Doesn't make a great recipe for romance.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Re:. Brothels were the "birth control" of the day, if you will.
and the ladies there too, got pregnant-- another 'unspoken' aspect was 'work houses' and 'infants' home (such as the the oliver twist got sent to) where infant mortality was as high a 95%--
in NY city, such 'day care centers' for the poor and unwed often had 97 to 99% mortality in the first year.. (it was a form of infantcide)(according to reformer like Jacob Riis)
the mothers (or fathers) didn't do it directly, but they abandon their children to such care centers/orphanages, and never visited them.. and the children soon died..
it was rare for an orhanage to actually care for and have children survive.. the exceptions were usually religious run orphanages.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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farm families shared one large bed with the mother and father in the middle and the children, according to age, next to them, the daughters next to Mom and the sons next to Dad. Doesn't make a great recipe for romance.
Which reminds me of the Buck Brown cartoon from Playboy many, many moons ago: "Betty Sue, I'm ashamed o' you, givin' to a total stranger what you won't give to your own kin!"
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