nursery

B2 Topic:House & Home

Also spelled nussery

US /ˈnɝsəɹi/ UK /ˈnɜːsəɹi/
noun Freq #7713

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    A place where young children are looked after while their parents work.

    They take their daughter to nursery every morning.

  2. 2
    noun

    A bedroom in a house for a baby or young child.

    They painted the nursery a soft shade of yellow.

  3. 3
    noun

    A place where plants are grown and sold.

    We bought several rose bushes at the garden nursery.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
2 noun · a bedroom in a house for a... baby's room
Word family
Forms nurseries
Derived forms nurserydomnurseryfishnurseryfulnurserymaidnurserymannurserypersonnurserywarenurserywomanpaleonurseryprenursery
Related forms nurse

Etymology

From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nur…

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