Angel-makers

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Jun 12 19:29:51 UTC 2006


 From another list:  here is German.  Still no English examples,
though?  (I'll never be able to recall where or when I picked up this sense.)

>Just for the record: the German dictionary compiled by J. and W.
>Grimm  shows the entry "Engelmacherin" (fem. only; volume published
>in 1862). The definition is "nutrix infantem male saturans: popular
>term for women under whose care children soon die of malnourishment,
>i.e. have to become angels before their time." The alternative
>"unqualified abortionist" is not recorded by the Grimms, but the
>word certainly did (later?) come to be used in that sense.

Joel

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