# Is there a single word, in any language (incl dead lang): 1kill/die in battle 2die in childbirth?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 27, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438 "2014-02-27T19:05:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/1 "2014-02-27T19:05:39Z")
See subject. Past participle, whatever.
Obviously phenomenona worth noting and mentioning since the dawn of humanity’s ability to mention things. (A statement which itself is worth a thread or three.)
Thanks,
Leo
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/2 "2014-02-27T19:09:12Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> See subject. Past participle, whatever.
>
> Obviously phenomenona worth noting and mentioning since the dawn of humanity’s ability to mention things. (A statement which itself is worth a thread or three.)
>
> Thanks,
> Leo
It seems you are looking for two different words, one for each phenomenon. A little clarity would help.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/3 "2014-02-27T19:19:15Z")
Yes. The two different events. I would of course be interested in hearing about a woman dying from complications giving birth while receiving a mortal blow in the field.
Tough call for the cause of death statistics.
---
### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/4 "2014-02-27T19:22:00Z")
I may not be correctly guessing what the question is (heaven know, it is not directly or clearly stated!), but I am going to say that I am pretty confident that no language has or has ever had (or ever will have) a single word meaning anything like “For every one person who dies in battle, two die in childbirth.”
Words and sentences generally play different roles in a language. You do occasionally get one word sentences, sometimes when a single verb is used as an imperative, for instance, or when, in context, certain words that would normally be needed to create a simple sentence can be left implicit, but conditions like this do not seem to apply in this case. You seem to want a single word to convey the meaning of a fairly complex sentence expressing an idea that, even if true, is not particularly commonplace. It is not going to happen.
ETA: OK, apparently I guessed completely wrong. You are not looking for a _single_ word after all. It would have helped if you hadn’t said you were.
---
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/5 "2014-02-27T19:25:31Z")
“Slain”?
---
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/6 "2014-02-27T19:29:03Z")
“dispatch”, too, although it would only apply to some deaths made in battle. It explicitly means to put to death or execute, neither of which would apply to a mother dying in childbirth.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/7 "2014-02-27T19:31:20Z")
Ah. I’m not a Statistician, but I believe the boys with the spreadsheets call it a “twofer”.
---
### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/8 "2014-02-27T19:35:37Z")
So, if I understand correctly, you want to know if any language has a single word that means “being killed in battle,”, and you also want to know if any language has a single word that means “dying in childbirth”? I find the second question quite interesting, since people have come up with several examples that at least come close for the killed-in-battle question (“slain” or “dispatched” aren’t perfect, but they’re not far off, at least). But I can’t think of anything similar for the dying-in-childbirth question.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/9 "2014-02-27T19:47:35Z")
This.
Event one: word. Event two: word.
🙂
---
### Author:  [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/10 "2014-02-27T21:17:22Z")
I want to have said what \*\*Chorpler \*\*has just said, above. And I credit those who came up with _slain, dispatched_. One couldn’t say if any language, any time, had a word for the childbirth death, but I do not think that English does.
---
### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/11 "2014-02-27T21:18:41Z")
One instance of meaning (1): In German, a minor meaning of the verb _fallen_ (main meaning: to fall) is: to be KIA. It is applied that specifically: not to deaths of non-soldiers in war, and not to deaths of soldiers other than in combat (except that when referring to a war/campaign/battle in broad terms, all soldiers who died can be referred as _Gefallene_ - but usually the total is referred to as having died).
---
### Author:  [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/12 "2014-02-27T21:20:22Z")
“Maternal death” is what it is called in fiction, as a literary event. Because it’s not in common usage, it can be taken to mean a variety of events in the parlance, I think.
---
### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/13 "2014-02-27T21:37:47Z")
Well if German, which seems to love to string words together, doesn’t have a word for died in childbirth, I’d guess no.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/14 "2014-02-27T21:39:41Z")
Again, there is some ambiguity. Do you mean only one word in that language that has only that meaning? Latin has many words that have ‘die in battle’ among their connotations and denotations, and words that mean ‘kill in battle’ that can be used in the passive.
---
### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/15 "2014-02-27T22:23:43Z")
It’s been awhile since I read anything about semantics. I think that words were given tags, although tags might not be the right word. So that an old joke could be paraphrased as: tall = [+measure dimension] [+vertical], long = [+measure dimension] [+horizontal] with both sometimes including [+significant size or amount]
Not that actual semanticists would use those particular tags.
My take is that the OP is looking for two words that would be tagged: 1) [+die] [+during active combat] and 2) [+die] [+during childbirth]. And that the OP has no need for either word to be the only word to include those tags. But that the words can only be used with both tags in effect.
I think that slain and fallen come close, but do not satisfy the requirements because both can be used in situations where the second tag is not in effect. For both of those words it’s not the denotation nor the connotation, but the usage that adds [+during active combat]. And we can argue about whether it has to be during or just related to, and whether the combat has to be active.
---
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/16 "2014-02-27T22:41:29Z")
> [@tapu](#):
>
> “Maternal death” is what it is called in fiction, as a literary event. Because it’s not in common usage, it can be taken to mean a variety of events in the parlance, I think.
Maternal death is when the mother dies in childbirth. The OP wants a word that describes the mother _and infant_ dying in childbirth.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/17 "2014-02-27T22:54:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> The OP wants a word that describes the mother _and infant_ dying in childbirth.
That’s not what he says. The “2” just indicates it’s the second of two words he’s asking for. (Of course, it would take some effort to write an OP that is less clear about what’s being asked.;))
---
### Author:  [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/18 "2014-02-27T23:03:13Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Maternal death is when the mother dies in childbirth. The OP wants a word that describes the mother _and infant_ dying in childbirth.
Oh, god, sorry. You’re right.
---
### Author:  [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/19 "2014-02-27T23:32:36Z")
\
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438/20 "2014-02-27T23:41:15Z")
> [@Mops](#):
>
> One instance of meaning (1): In German, a minor meaning of the verb _fallen_ (main meaning: to fall) is: to be KIA. It is applied that specifically: not to deaths of non-soldiers in war, and not to deaths of soldiers other than in combat (except that when referring to a war/campaign/battle in broad terms, all soldiers who died can be referred as _Gefallene_ - but usually the total is referred to as having died).
In English too, one meaning of fall is to die in battle.
_Nelson fell at Trafalgar._
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-single-word-in-any-language-incl-dead-lang-1kill-die-in-battle-2die-in-childbirth/682438.md?page=2)