a custom in certain cultures of treating the husband of a woman giving birth as if he were bearing the child
Word origin
C19: from French, from couver to hatch, from Latin cubāre to lie down
couvade in American English
(kuːˈvɑːd, French kuːˈvad)
noun
a practice among some peoples, as the Basques of Spain, in which a man, immediately preceding the birth of his child, takes to his bed in an enactment of the birth experience and subjects himself to various taboos usually associated with pregnancy
Word origin
[1860–65; ‹ F (now obs.), lit., a hatching, sitting on eggs, equiv. to couv(er) to hatch (‹ L cubāre to lie down) + -ade-ade1; cf. covey]