"festival of the Holy Innocents" (Dec. 28), late Old English *cildramæsse (c. 1000), from obsolete plural of child (q.v.) + mass (n.2). It commemorates the slaughter of children in and around Bethlehem by order of Herod (Matthew ii.16-18).
child
child-bearing
childbed
childbirth
childe
Childermas
childhood
childish
childless
childlike
child-proof
