Gravid

By Deane Barker • • tags: definition •

Definition: pregnant; carrying young or eggs

For no particular reason, I searched Google Trends for “gravid” and found an interesting correlation – a large percentage of searches for the term come from southern US states. Do Southerners use this term more often, or do are they just less likely to know what it means and therefore have to search for it?

Why I Looked It Up

In Cutting for Stone, I found the following passage:

Then the sunbeam fell directly on Sister Mary Joseph Praise’s gravid uterus, which bulged out of the bloody wound like an obscenity on a saint’s tongue.

As her title would indicate, Mary was a nun, hence the problem and colorful simile usage to describe it.

Links from this – Cutting for Stone September 21, 2021
Absolutely stunning novel. I had heard of the book for years. My mother was born in Ethiopia in the 1940s (my grandparents were missionaries from New Zealand), and several people had told me that the story in the novel resembled my mother’s experience there as a child. The book was purchased for me...