Birthplace

How to spell birthplace

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce birthplace

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does birthplace mean?

1. nounThe town, building, or place where a person was born.

Birthplace in a sentence

• The small village remains his birthplace and he visits it every summer.

• The form asked applicants to list their birthplace and current address.

Where does birthplace come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a transparent compound formed from two native English elements. The first part, 'birth', comes through Old Norse 'byrth', closely related to the Old English 'byrd', meaning the act of being born; it shares an ancient Germanic root with the verb 'bear', in the sense of bearing or bringing forth a child. The second part, 'place', has a more travelled history: it entered English through Old French 'place', from Latin 'platea' meaning a broad open street or courtyard, which itself was borrowed from the Greek 'plateia', the feminine of 'platys' meaning broad or flat. By the late Middle Ages English had welded these two pieces into a single word naming the location where someone was born. Because both halves are familiar everyday words, the only real spelling pitfall is remembering the silent 'th' cluster of 'birth' and writing it as one solid compound rather than two words.

How the word is built

• birth (the act of being born)
• place (location)