RE: [slug-chat] "Pregnant Pause"

[Marc Lawrence <mlawrence@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Rodos [mailto:rodos@xxxxxxxxxxx] wrote:
> Anyone know where the phrase "Pregnant Pause" come from? 
> Everything2 has
> something on it but I was just wondering what it really means.
> 
> My understading is that is a longer than normal pause, so why pregnant
> pause?

"Pregnant" comes from the Latin "praegnas" meaning "before birth".

While this might explain it's use as to describe someone "with child"
it also came to be used to mean that intangible meaningful moment
of expectation prior to something of significance, thus a "pregnant 
pause" means the pause, usually full of tension and gravitas, prior to,
for example an outburst (note, just as an aside, "gravid" comes from 
"gravis" meaning "heavy", so we also sometimes talk about the "gravity" 
of the moment :-) ). I'm not sure who first coined the phrase though.

This is my understanding of it's meaning, though I would happily
stand corrected.

Cheers
Marc