parturiency

Noun

parturiency (uncountable)

1. Parturition
   • Is it possible for a woman to go through parturiency without pain?1904, Charles J. Bayer, Modern Researches, Physiological, Psychological, page 230
   • Savages of a low degree of civilization are generally little troubled by parturiency.1990, John J. Bonica, The Management of Pain - Volume 2, page 1314
2. (rare) Gestation.
   • It seems, if we may so use the metaphor, to have been the "destroying angel" of naturalized and injurious systematism, and has greatly assisted to substitue the innovation of the more truly elevating attainments of practical and useful pursuits; not merely intended to produce a book on a Greek...1819, The London Medical Repository, Monthly Journal, and Review, page 450
   • In Night Song, Cara Henson, the teacher, becomes pregnant in her romantic relationship with Chase Jefferson, a cavalier soldier, but refuses to tell him about her parturiency.2004, Rita B. Dandridge, Black Women's Activism, page 8
3. (figuratively) A process or quality that brings forth something new.
   • The Woman, i.e. Church in her travelling State, may be considered, First, with respect to her Spiritual Parturiency, which great thing being effected powerfully and suddenly, by the abundant Grace of God poured forth upon her in Prayers and Supplications, it thence becomes an easy Birth, the...1731, Nathaniel Markwick, The Prerogative of the Jews Asserted Without Diminution
   • As you have considered human nature in all its lights, you must be extremely well apprized, that there is a very close correspondence between the outward and the inward man; that scarce the least dawning, the least parturiency towards a thought can be stirring in the mind of man, without producing...1810, Steele, “Letters on Epitaphs”, in The Spectator, volume 9
4. (humanistic psychology) A phase in the therapeutic process in which feelings dominate over understanding, in which the client seems to relive emotions and to lack clarity.
   • If a parturiency is more disturbing and doesn't quickly return to nascence, the therapist may wish to indicate this to the client with some brief statement, such as "I'm feeling grumpy about something and I don't quite know what it is."1981, Raymond J. Corsini, Handbook of Innovative Psychotherapies, page 353
   • This highlights the necessity for the therapist to be alert for signs of parturiency, since if one is distracted or inattentive, one may miss these "doorways to feelings."1990, Germain Lietaer, Jan Rombauts, Richard Balen, Client-centered and Experiential Psychotherapy in the Nineties