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Can "born" be used with creatures that come from eggs?

English Language & Usage Asked by M.Sameer on June 13, 2021

I have just seen this post on facebook.

It says “This two-headed turtle was born on June 18th…” so I wondered if the word “born” can be used with animals that lay eggs. Is there another word for that?

6 Answers

I don’t have any particular reaction against using ‘born’ for animals like turtles. It describes at what time their lifespan began, roughly.

The specific term that relates to the ‘birth’ of coming out of an egg is hatching, but that does specifically describe the moment when the eggshell cracks and the young emerges from within the egg, rather than more generically the time when you start to count the animal’s age (even though it’s the same moment, of course).

If you are talking about an old turtle, for example, it sounds more natural to me to say that it was born in 1832 than to say that it hatched in 1832.

Correct answer by Janus Bahs Jacquet on June 13, 2021

To be born means “to be brought forth as offspring, to come into the world”. It can be used for creatures hatched from egg — or you could just use hatch.

However, you can find many references to hatched things being born. For example, from The New York Times:

This month’s army of periodical cicadas was born in 1996. Their mothers laid their eggs in the branches of trees, where they developed for a. . . .

Or from CBS News:

First bald eagle born in Pittsburgh in over 200 years

You can find many other examples of things being born that hatched from eggs.

Answered by tchrist on June 13, 2021

Absolutely. One can be BORN from an egg. Perfectly valid English usage, although as previously mentioned there is a better verb to describe the action here: HATCH.

Answered by Kundan Bhaduri on June 13, 2021

BIRTH - It is common for all the creatures in the world. When a life comes out from the Natures protection - (Human from womb, birds from egg, fish - actually from egg....etc), counted as a birth. So its completely valid for using BORN in your example.

Answered by Arunchunaivendan on June 13, 2021

Definition of born (Entry 1 of 2)

1a: brought forth by or as if by birth

Definition of birth (Entry 1 of 3)

1a: the emergence of a new individual from the body of its parent

b: the act or process of bringing forth young from the womb

So no it's not actually proper to use born for hatch, born means emerging alive from a living being.

Answered by Greg on June 13, 2021

Born means live ( viviparous) leaving body of mammal, marsupials, mother. Hatched means leaving of egg as in reptiles, birds, fish insects, arachnids,.....

Not sure about exceptions like greenfly!

Answered by Rosie Perkins on June 13, 2021

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