child [OE] In Anglo-Saxon times child frequently meant a newborn baby, a sense we retain in childbirth [LME]. In the 16th century child was sometimes used to specify a female infant: ‘A very pretty bairn. A boy or a child, I wonder?’ (Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale). On a similar theme, the familiar saying children should be seen and not heard was applied originally not to children but to young women. It was described as early as 1400 as ‘an old English saw’ (or saying) in the form ‘A maid should be seen, but not heard’. It was not until the 19th century that children became the subject.