As I mentioned in an earlier email, I recently gave birth to my third child — my third daughter! — so I just want to write a light-hearted email today from my “confinement”!
I thought we could look at the noun “confinement” as a “thematic” Word of the Day today, haha — as this is the English word that is generally used to refer to the period of time in which a mother stays at home to recover from childbirth and take care of the newborn baby.
I say that this word is “generally used” because, as you probably know, different cultures have different customs regarding “confinement,” and Westerners generally do not observe confinement as strictly as Chinese people — even though, evolutionarily and anthropologically, most cultures have some general custom of women staying home and resting after childbirth.
What I mean is that “confinement” is not really a term that is culturally “native” to English now, even though, apparently, English-language texts from the 18th century onwards did refer to this period with this word.
Right now, however, it seems that the word is more frequently used by Asian people to refer to this postpartum period when speaking in English.
Anyway, if we look at the word itself, “confinement” has the word root “confine” and the noun suffix “-ment.” “Confine,” as you probably know, is a Latinate word — via French — that means “keep within borders or limits.” Together with “-ment,” “confinement” is a noun that means “keeping someone within borders or limits.”
This is also why this word has always struck me as a little semantically “harsh” when referring to the postpartum recovery period — because the original connotation of the noun is that the mother is “kept within the house against her will,” haha.
But it is also true that words eventually take on more specific meanings without their original connotations when they are used to refer to something specific over time. In this case, the word “confinement,” to the people who do use it to refer to this postpartum period, is quite neutral and does not strongly suggest coercion, haha.
What are some thematic connections we can make with this word? Remember that making all sorts of connections — whether etymological, semantic, or even thematic — is key to learning and expanding our vocabulary effectively and systematically.
For one, we can call “陪月” “confinement nannies” — that is generally the term used when we discuss this profession in English discourse, although, again, hiring a confinement nanny is more of a Chinese custom, so it is an expression that is not really culturally “native” to English.
The Latinate adjective “postpartum” is also thematically related — it means “after birth.” “Post-” is a Latinate prefix that means “after” — you probably know this or have learnt it from our “Boost Your Vocabulary” course. We use this adjective to describe the period after birth for the mother. We can find it in common expressions like “postpartum period” and “postpartum depression,” etc.
Another thematically related expression that springs to mind is “maternity leave.”
“Maternity,” with the noun suffix “-ity” that you should know, is another word with a Latinate root. It is a noun that means the “quality or condition of being a mother.” As such, “maternity leave” means the “leave” you take “because of motherhood.”
I will engage more again after my maternity leave!
正如我在之前一封 email 裡提過，我最近生了第三個孩子——我的第三個女兒！——所以今天就想在我的「confinement （坐月時期）」裡，寫一封比較輕鬆的 email 給大家！
我想我們今天可以將名詞「confinement」當成一個主題性的 Word of the Day 來看一下，哈哈——因為這個英文字一般是用來指媽媽生完孩子之後，留在家中恢復身體和照顧初生嬰兒的那段時間。
我說這個字是「一般」會這樣用，是因為大家應該也知道，不同文化對於「confinement」有不同的習俗，而西方人一般不會像華人那樣嚴格地坐月——雖然，從人類學角度來看，大部分文化其實都有某種讓女性在生產後留在家中休息的習俗。
我的意思是，雖然英文有些文本似乎從 18 世紀開始已經有用這個字來指「坐月」時間，但在現在的英文文化裡，「confinement」其實不算是一個在文化上很「native」或自然的字。
現在比較常是亞洲人在用英文講到產後「坐月」這段時間時，會用「confinement」這個字。
無論如何，如果我們看這個字本身，「confinement」有字根「confine」和名詞字尾「-ment」。
「Confine」大家應該也知道，是一個拉丁文字源的動詞——經由法文借到英文——意思是「將某人或某物限制在某個範圍或界線之內」。加上「-ment」之後，「confinement」就是一個名詞，意思是「將某人限制在某個範圍或界線之內」。
這也是為甚麼我一直覺得，用這個字來指「坐月」這段產後恢復期，在意思上有一點「harsh」——因為這個名詞原本給人的感覺，是媽媽好像「被迫留在屋企，不能出去」那樣，哈哈。
不過，當然，單字經過長時間被用來指某個特定事物之後，也會慢慢發展出更加具體的意思，而不一定保留原本的意思。在這個情況下，對於會用「confinement」來指產坐月時間的人來說，這個字其實是相當中性的，並不會強烈暗示被強迫或者被限制，哈哈。
我們可以和這個字建立甚麼主題性的連繫呢？記得，要有效和有系統地學習及擴展詞彙量，關鍵就是要在單字之間建立各種連繫——不論是字源上的、意思上的，甚至是主題上的連繫。
例如，我們可以將「陪月」稱為「confinement nanny」——當我們在英文語境中討論這個職業時，一般會用這名詞組來表達。當然，請陪月本身也比較是華人文化中的習俗，所以這個 expression 也不是一個在英文文化中本來就存在的表達。
另一個主題上相關的字，是有拉丁文字源的形容詞「post-partum」——意思是「產後」。「Post-」是一個拉丁文字源的前綴，意思是「之後」——大家應該知道這一點，或者在我們的《Boost Your Vocabulary》課程裡學過。
我們會用這個形容詞去描述媽媽生產之後的時期，例如常見的名詞組表達方式「post-partum period（產後時期）」和「post-partum depression（產後抑鬱）
」等等。
另一個我馬上想到的主題相關表達方式，是「maternity leave」。
「Maternity」這個字有大家應該知道的名詞字尾「-ity」，也是一個有拉丁文字根的字。它是一個名詞，意思是「作為母親的狀態或特質」。所以，「maternity leave」就是因為「成為媽媽」而放的假期，也就是產假。
I will engage more with everyone again after my confinement! 👶🏻