Editing Caesarean section (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Birth of Caesar.jpg|thumb|left|Fictional 15th-century depiction of the birth of Julius Caesar]]

The origin of the term is not definitively known. Roman ''[[leges regiae|Lex Regia]]'' (royal law), later the {{Lang|la|Lex Caesarea}} (imperial law), of [[Numa Pompilius]] (715–673 BC),<ref>{{cite book | vauthors =Segen JC |title=The Dictionary of Modern Medicine: A Sourcebook of Currently Used Medical Expressions, Jargon and Technical Terms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FbSlyyshjOoC&q=Caesarean+section+royal+law+Regia&pg=PA102|access-date=7 December 2012 |year=1992 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-1-85070-321-1|page=102}}</ref> required the child of a mother who had died during childbirth to be cut from her womb.<ref name="vanDongen-2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Van Dongen PW | title = Caesarean section–etymology and early history. | journal = [[South African Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology]] | date = August 2009 | volume = 15 | issue = 2 | pages = 62–66| url = http://www.sajog.org.za/index.php/SAJOG/article/viewFile/158/117 | archive-url =  https://web.archive.org/web/20130515013653/http://www.sajog.org.za/index.php/SAJOG/article/viewFile/158/117 | archive-date=15 May 2013 }}</ref>
There was a cultural [[taboo]] that mothers should not be buried pregnant,<ref>"As there was a cultural taboo against burying an undelivered woman in Roman and German societies, according to Lex Caesarea". U Högberg, E Iregren, CH Siven, "Maternal deaths in medieval Sweden: an osteological and life table analysis", ''[[Journal of Biosocial Science]]'', 1987, 19: 495–503 Cambridge University Press</ref> that may have reflected a way of saving some fetuses. Roman practice required a living mother to be in her tenth month of pregnancy before resorting to the procedure, reflecting the knowledge that she could not survive the delivery.<ref name="Caesarean Section">{{cite web | publisher = University of Virginia Health System | work = Claude Moore Sciences Health Library | title = Ancient Gynecology: Caesarean Section | url = http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/artifacts/antiqua/gynecology.cfm  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130403133618/http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/artifacts/antiqua/gynecology.cfm | archive-date=3 April 2013 }}</ref>

Speculations that the Roman dictator [[Julius Caesar]] was born by the method now known as C-section are false.<ref>''Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed'', by Christopher Wanjek, p. 5 (John Wiley & Sons, 2003)</ref> Although caesarean sections were performed in [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, no classical source records a mother surviving such a delivery, while Caesar's mother lived for years after his birth.<ref name="vanDongen-2009"/><ref>"could not survive the trauma of a Caesarean" ''Oxford Classical Dictionary, Third Edition'', "Childbirth"</ref> As late as the 12th century, scholar and physician [[Maimonides]] expresses doubt over the possibility of a woman's surviving this procedure and again becoming pregnant.<ref>Commentary to Mishnah Bekhorot 8:2</ref> The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb ''[[wikt:caedere|caedere]]'', 'to cut', with children delivered this way referred to as {{Lang|la|caesones}}. [[Pliny the Elder]] refers to a certain Julius Caesar (an ancestor of the famous Roman statesman) as {{Lang|la|ab utero caeso}}, 'cut from the womb' giving this as an explanation for the [[cognomen]] ''Caesar'' which was then carried by his descendants.<ref name="vanDongen-2009"/> Nonetheless,  the [[false etymology]] has been widely repeated until recently. For example, the first (1888) and second (1989) editions of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' say that caesarean birth "was done in the case of Julius Cæsar".<ref>{{cite web | work = [[Oxford English Dictionary]] | edition = 2nd | date = 1989 | url = https://www.oed.com/oed2/00031110 | title = ''s.v.'' Cæsarean, 2 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200712123046/https://www.oed.com/oed2/00031110 | archive-date = 12 July 2020 }}</ref> More recent dictionaries are more diffident: the online edition of the OED (2021) mentions "the traditional belief that Julius Cæsar was delivered this way",<ref>"most recently modified version published online March 2021" {{cite web | work = [[Oxford English Dictionary]] | url = https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/26016 | title = ''s.v.'' Cæsarean, 2 }}</ref> and ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary'' (2003) says "from the legendary association of such a delivery with the Roman cognomen ''Caesar''".<ref name="M-W_C_11">{{citation | author = Merriam-Webster | author-link = Merriam-Webster | title = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary | edition = 11th | publisher = Merriam-Webster | year = 2003 | location = Springfield, Massachusetts, USA | isbn = 978-0-87779-809-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00merr_6 }}</ref>

The word ''Caesar'', meaning either Julius Caesar or an emperor in general, is also borrowed or [[calque]]d in the name of the procedure in many other languages in Europe and beyond.<ref>For a summary, of an article about the relevant historical and linguistic questions, see {{cite web | title =  Kaiserschnitt - Cäsars Geburtsgeschichte war ein historisches Missverständnis (W3) | url = http://www.etymologie.info/~e/d_/de-medizi.html#Kaiserschnitt | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070106021301/http://www.etymologie.info/~e/d_/de-medizi.html| archive-date=6 January 2007}}</ref>

Finally, the Roman ''[[praenomen]]'' (given name) [[Caeso (praenomen)|Caeso]] was said to be given to children who were born via C-section. While this was probably just [[folk etymology]] made popular by Pliny the Elder, it was well known by the time the term came into common use.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Blumenfeld-Kosinski R |title=Not of Woman Born: Representations of Caesarean Birth in Medieval and Renaissance Culture|date=1991|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|isbn=978-0-8014-9974-6|edition= 1st}} "Appendix: Creative Etymology: ''Caesarean Section'' from Pliny to Rousset" (pp. 143-153) presents a history of the legend of caesarean births in Western culture.</ref>

=== Spelling ===
{{See also|American and British English spelling differences}}
The term ''caesarean'' is spelled in various accepted ways, [[wikt:Caesarean#Alternative forms|as discussed at Wiktionary]]. The [[Medical Subject Headings]] (MeSH) of the [[United States National Library of Medicine]] (NLM) uses ''cesarean section'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/68002585 |title=Cesarean Section |language=en}}</ref> while some other American medical works, e.g. ''Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary'', use ''caesarean'',<ref name="fd">{{Cite web | url=http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/caesarean | title=Caesarean}}</ref> as do most British works. The online versions of the US-published ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary''<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cesarean | title=Definition of CESAREAN| date=20 July 2023}}</ref> and ''American Heritage Dictionary''<ref name="fd" /> list ''cesarean'' first and other spellings as "variants".