Forms: 6 [insented] 6–8 enseint, 7 einsent, inseint, 8– enceinte. [Fr.; = Pr. encinta, Sp. (written as two words) en cinta, It. incinta:—late L. in-cincta, explained by Isidore (6th c.) as ‘ungirt,’ f. in- negative prefix + cincta, pa. pple. of cingĕre to gird.
Others explain the word as the pa. pple. of incingĕre to put a girdle on, gird (the It. and Pr. forms of this verb being used for ‘to render pregnant’), or as phrase (late L. in cinctā = in cinctū) in a girdle. See Diez and Scheler.]
Of women: Pregnant. † Privement enseint (legal AF.): see quot. 1613.
[1599. Will of G. Taylard (Somerset Ho.). Yf my wife be pryvyment insented wt a manchilde.]
1602. in J. P. Rylands, Chesh. Lanc. Fun. Certif. (Record Soc., 1882). Agnes was priviement enseint wth a sonne.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 117. His wife priuement inseint (that is, so with childe as it is not discerned).
1723. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), II. 114. During a possibility of being left enceinte.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xi. 61. Leaving his wife enseint or big with child.
1860. Tanner, Pregnancy, i. 26. Those Parisian ladies who were fortunately enceinte.
