Neonatal

How to spell neonatal

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce neonatal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does neonatal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the first few weeks immediately after a baby is born.

Neonatal in a sentence

• The premature twins spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit.

• She trained for years to become a neonatal nurse on the maternity ward.

Where does neonatal come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a hybrid medical word that yokes together a Greek element and a Latin one. The first part, neo-, comes from the Greek neos, meaning simply 'new' or 'young', the same element found in 'neologism' and 'neon'. The second part traces to the Latin natus, 'born', the past participle of nasci, 'to be born', which also gives us 'native', 'nativity' and 'prenatal'. The compound was assembled by physicians in the early twentieth century to describe the period immediately following birth, conventionally the first four weeks of an infant's life. Because the word fuses 'neo' (new) with 'natal' (relating to birth), remembering that it is literally 'newly born' keeps the single 'n' in each half and the 't' of 'natal' firmly in place.

How the word is built

• neo- (new)
• nat (born, from Latin nasci 'to be born')
• -al (adjective suffix)