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foster - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”).

Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).

foster (not comparable)

  1. Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.
    foster parents
  2. Receiving such care.
    a foster child
  3. Related by such care.
    We are a foster family.

receiving such care

foster (countable and uncountable, plural fosters)

  1. (countable, informal) A foster parent.

    Some fosters end up adopting.

  2. (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship.

foster (third-person singular simple present fosters, present participle fostering, simple past and past participle fostered)

  1. (transitive) To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
  2. (transitive) To promote the development of something; to cultivate and grow a thing.

    Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.

    • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

      And Time, which is the hound of Sish, devoured all things; and Sish sent up the ivy and fostered weeds, and dust fell from the hand of Sish and covered stately things.

    • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ‘Sacha Baron Cohen’s vital, venomous action movie’”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):

      Grimsby doesn't ever wound quite as devastatingly as Borat or Brüno, but it's a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters.

  3. (transitive) To nurse or cherish something.
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.

Modern English makes a distinction between fostering (which is implied to be temporary or informal) and adopting (which is permanent and makes the child legally recognized as part of the family). In older usage the two terms were more interchangeable.

  • (antonym(s) of “cultivate and grow”): hamper

to cultivate and grow something

to nurse or cherish something

foster (plural fosters)

  1. (obsolete) A forester.

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą.

foster n (singular definite fostret or fosteret, plural indefinite fostre)

  1. fetus

Inherited from Old English fōster, from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą; reinforced by Old English fōstre (“fosterer”). The vocalism is due to regular shortening before a three-consonant cluster (in the Old English oblique stem fōstr-).

  • IPA(key): /ˈfɔstər/, /ˈfɔstrə/

foster (plural *fostres)

  1. A child; one of one's progeny.
  2. (chiefly Early Middle English) Food or other care.
  3. (rare) A foster child or adopted child.
  4. (rare) A foster parent or adoptee.

foster

  1. Alternative form of forester

foster

  1. Alternative form of fostren

From Old Norse fóstr.

foster n (definite singular fosteret or fostret, indefinite plural foster or fostre, definite plural fostra or fostrene)

  1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

From Old Norse fóstr.

foster n (definite singular fosteret, indefinite plural foster, definite plural fostera)

  1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

fōster n

  1. Alternative form of fōstor

Strong a-stem:

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą.

foster n

  1. a fetus
  2. (figuratively) an (intellectual) product

    ett foster av hans sjuka fantasi

    a product of his sick imagination