Foster

How to spell foster

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce foster

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does foster mean?

1. verbTo encourage or help something to develop and grow.
2. verbTo bring up and care for a child who is not your own by birth, often through an official arrangement.

Foster in a sentence

• The new manager wanted to foster a sense of trust among the staff.

• The couple decided to foster a child while waiting to adopt.

• Regular team lunches can foster better communication between departments.

• Local authorities ask families to foster children who cannot live with their birth parents.

Where does foster come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Foster comes from the Old English fostor, meaning 'food', 'nourishment', or 'the act of feeding and rearing', which was closely tied to the verb fedan, 'to feed'. From this came the Old English fostrian, meaning 'to supply with food' and so 'to bring up or rear a child'. Because rearing a child is an act of patient nurturing, the sense widened over the centuries into the modern figurative meaning of encouraging something to grow or develop, such as fostering goodwill or talent. The same nourishing root also gave us the long-standing phrases foster parent and foster child, used for someone who feeds and raises a child who is not their own by birth. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable since Anglo-Saxon times, and the silent link to 'food' is a useful reminder that the heart of the word is nourishment.

How the word is built

• fost- (from Old English fostor: food, nourishment)
• -er