nursery

Etymology

The word comes from Middle English noricerie, norserye ("children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing"), among other forms, which came from Old French norricerie, nourricerie. This derived from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice ("childminder, nanny; wet nurse")) plus -erie (a suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice in turn came from Late Latin nūtrīcia ("wet nurse"), from Latin nūtrīcius ("that nurses or suckles; nourishing"), from nūtriō ("to breastfeed, nurse, suckle"), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- ("to flow"). The English word can also be analysed as nourice, nurse plus -ery (a suffix forming nouns meaning 'place of').