Online Etymology Dictionary

womb: O.E. wamb, womb "belly, uterus," from P.Gmc. *wambo (cf. O.N. vomb, O.Fris. wambe, M.Du. wamme, Du. wam, O.H.G. wamba, Ger. Wamme "belly, paunch," Goth. wamba "belly, womb," O.E. umbor "child"), of unknown origin.
hysterical: 1610s, from L. hystericus "of the womb," from Gk. hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Meaning "very funny" (by 1939) is from the notion of uncontrollable fits of laughter.
uterine: "pertaining to the womb," early 15c., from O.Fr. uterin, from L.L. uterinus "pertaining to the womb," also "born of the same mother," from L. uterus "womb" (see uterus).
uterus: 1615, from L. uterus "womb, belly" (pl. uteri), from PIE base *udero- "abdomen, womb, stomach" (cf. Skt. udaram "belly," Gk. hystera "womb," Lith. vederas "stomach," O.C.S. vedro "bucket").
madrigal: "short love poem," also "part-song for three or more voices," 1588, from It. (Venetian) madregal "simple, ingenuous," from L.L. matricalis "invented, original," lit. "of or from the womb," from matrix (gen. matricis) "womb."
Adelphia: district of London, so called because it was laid out by four brothers of a family named Adam, from Gk. adelphos "brother," lit. "from the same womb," from copulative prefix a- "together with" + delphys "womb," perhaps related to dolphin (q.v.). The district was the site of a popular theater c.1882-1900, which gave its name to a style of performance.
yoni: 1799, from Skt., "female sexual principle as an object of veneration," lit. "vulva, womb."
matriculate (v.): 1570s, "to admit a student to a college by enrolling his name on the register," from M.L. *matriculare "to register," from L.L. matricula "public register," dim. of L. matrix (gen. matricis) "list, roll," also "sources, womb" (see matrix). The connection of senses in the Latin word seems to be via confusion of Gk. metra "womb" (from meter "mother") and an identical Gk. word meaning "register, lot." Evidently Latin matrix was used to translate both, though it originally shared meaning with only one. Related: Matriculated; matriculating; matriculation.
vulva: 1548, from L. vulva, earlier volva "womb, female sexual organ," lit. "wrapper," from volvere "to turn, twist, roll, revolve," also "turn over in the mind," from PIE base *wel- "to turn, revolve" (cf. Skt. valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lith. valtis "twine, net," apvalus "round;" O.C.S. valiti "roll, welter," vluna "wave;" Gk. eluo "wind, wrap," helix "spiral object," eilein "to turn, squeeze;" Goth. walwjan "to roll;" O.E. wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" O.H.G. walzan "to roll, waltz;" O.Ir. fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel").
Antigone: daughter of Oedipus, her name may mean "in place of a mother" in Gk., from anti- "opposite, in place of" + gone "womb, childbirth, generation."
colposcopy: 1940, from colpo-, from L., from Gk. kolpos "womb" (used from c.1900 in medical compounds in sense "vagina") + -oscopy.
alive: c.1200, from O.E. on life "in living." The fuller form on live was still current 17c. Alive and kicking "alert, vigorous," attested from 1859; "The allusion is to a child in the womb after quickening" [Farmer].
kidney: earlly 14c., of unknown origin, originally kidenere, perhaps a compound of O.E. cwið "womb" + ey "egg," in reference to the shape of the organ. Fig. sense of "temperament" is from 1550s. Kidney bean is from 1540s.
conception: c.1300, from Fr. conception, from L. conceptionem, noun of action from concipere (see conceive). Originally in the womb sense (also with ref. to Conception Day in the Church calendar); mental sense is late 14c. Meaning "that which is conceived in the mind" is from 1520s; "general notion" is from 1785.
conceive: late 13c., from stem of O.Fr. conceveir, from L. concipere (pp. conceptus) "to take in and hold," from com- intensive prefix + comb. form of capere "to take," from PIE *kap- "to grasp" (see capable). Originally "take (seed) into the womb, become pregnant;" sense of "take into the mind" is from mid-14c.
embryo: mid-14c., from M.L. embryo, from Gk. embryon, in Homer, "young animal," later, "fruit of the womb," lit. "that which grows," from en- "in" + bryein "to swell, be full."
chitterlings: 1221, cheterlingis "entrails, souse," origins obscure, but probably from O.E. and having something to do with entrails (related to O.E. cwið "womb;" cf. Ger. Kutteln "guts, bowels, tripe, chitterlings"). Variants chitlins (1845) and chitlings (1880) both also had a sense of "shreds, tatters."
dolphin: c.1350, from O.Fr. daulphin, from M.L. dolfinus, from L. delphinus "dolphin," from Gk. delphis (gen. delphinos) "dolphin," related to delphys "womb," probably via notion of the animal bearing live young. Popularly applied to the dorado from late 16c.
gestation: 1533, "riding on horseback, etc., as a form of exercise," from L. gestationem (nom. gestatio) "a carrying," from gestare "bear, carry, gestate," freq. of gerere (pp. gestus) "to bear, carry, bring forth." Meaning "action or process of carrying young in the womb" is from 1615.
matrix: 1373, from O.Fr. matrice, from L. matrix (gen. matricis) "pregnant animal," in L.L. "womb," also "source, origin," from mater (gen. matris) "mother." Sense of "place or medium where something is developed" is first recorded 1555; sense of "embedding or enclosing mass" first recorded 1641. Logical sense of "array of possible combinations of truth-values" is attested from 1914.
hysterectomy: 1886, coined in Eng. from Gk. hystera "womb" (see uterus) + -ectomy, from Gk. ektome "a cutting out" (see -ectomy).
calf: O.E. cealf (Anglian cælf) "young cow," from W.Gmc. *kalbam (cf. M.Du. calf, O.N. kalfr, Ger. Kalb, Goth. kalbo), perhaps from PIE *gelb(h)-, from base *gel- "to swell," hence, "womb, fetus, young of an animal." Elliptical sense of "leather made from the skin of a calf" is from 1727. Used of icebergs that break off from glaciers from 1818. Calf of the leg (early 14c.) is from O.N. kalfi, source unknown; possibly from the same Germanic root.
corporeal: 1610, from L. corporeus "of the nature of a body," from corpus "body," from PIE *kwrpes, from base *kwrep- "body, form appearance," probably from a verbal root meaning "to appear" (cf. Skt. krp- "form, body," Avestan kerefsh "form, body," O.E. hrif "belly," O.H.G. href "womb, belly, abdomen").
child: O.E. cild "child," from P.Gmc. *kiltham (source of Gothic kilþei "womb"), unrelated to other languages. Also in O.E. meaning "a youth of gentle birth" (archaic, usually written childe). In 16c., especially "girl child." The difficulty with the plural began in O.E., where the nom. pl. was at first cild, identical with the sing., then c.975 pl. form cildru (gen. cildra) arose, only to be re-pluraled c.1175 as children, which is thus a double plural. M.E. plural cildre survives in Lancashire dialect childer and in Childermas (c.1000) "festival of the Holy Innocents" (Dec. 28).
bosom: O.E. bosm "breast; womb; surface; ship's hold," from W.Gmc. *bosm- (cf. O.Fris. bosm, O.S. bosom, M.Du. boesem, Du. boezem, O.H.G. buosam, Ger. Busen "bosom, breast"), perhaps from PIE base *bhou- "to grow, swell," or *bhaghus "arm" (in which case the primary notion would be "enclosure formed by the breast and the arms"). Narrowed meaning "a woman's breasts" is from 1959; but bosomy "big-breasted" is from 1928. Bosom-friend is attested 1580s; bosom buddy from 1920s.
Ionian: "of Ionia," the districts of ancient Greece inhabited by the Ionians (including Attica and the north coast of the Peloponnesus, but especially the coastal strip of Asia Minor, including the islands of Samos and Chios). The name probably is pre-Gk., perhaps related to Skt. yoni "womb, vulva," and a ref. to goddess-worshipping people. Also used of the sea that lies between Italy and the northern Peloponnesus (1632). The musical Ionian mode (1844) corresponds to our basic major scale but was characterized by the Greeks as soft and effeminate. The Ionic order of Gk. architecture is attested from 1563.
"The Ionians delighted in wanton dances and songs more than the rest of the Greeks ... and wanton gestures were proverbially termed Ionic motions." [Thomas Robinson, "Archæologica Græca," 1807]
belly (n.): O.E. belg, bylg (W.Saxon), bælg (Anglian) "leather bag, purse, bellows," from P.Gmc. *balgiz "bag" (cf. O.N. belgr "bag, bellows," bylgja "billow," Goth. balgs "wineskin"), from PIE *bholgh-, from base *bhelgh- "to swell," an extension of *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell" (see bole). Meaning shifted to "body" (late 13c.), then to "abdomen" (mid-14c.). Meaning "bulging part or concave surface of anything" is 1590s. The W.Gmc. root had an extended sense of "anger, arrogance" (cf. O.E. bolgenmod "enraged;" belgan (v.) "to become angry"). IE languages commonly use the same word for both the external belly and the internal (stomach, womb, etc., e.g. Gk. gaster). Fastidious avoidance of belly in speech and writing (replaced by imported stomach and abdomen) began late 18c. and the word was banished from Bibles in many early 19c. editions.
bowel: c.1300, from O.Fr. boele "intestines, bowels, innards" (12c., Mod.Fr. boyau), from M.L. botellus "small intestine," originally "sausage," dim. of botulus "sausage," a word borrowed from Oscan-Umbrian, from PIE *gwet-/*geut- "intestine" (cf. L. guttur "throat," O.E. cwið, Goth. qiþus "belly, womb," Ger. kutteln "guts, chitterlings"). Greek splankhnon (from the same PIE base as spleen) was a word for the principal internal organs, which also were felt in ancient times to be the seat of various emotions. Greek poets, from Aeschylus down, regarded the bowels as the seat of the more violent passions such as anger and love, but by the Hebrews they were seen as the seat of tender affections, especially kindness, benevolence, and compassion. Splankhnon was used in Septuagint to translate a Hebrew word, and from thence early Bibles in English rendered it in its literal sense as bowels, which thus acquired in English a secondary meaning of "pity, compassion" (late 14c.). But in later editions the word often was translated as heart. Bowel movement is attested by 1874.