Two morning names for today, totally unrelated to one another: the nickname Ozzie or Ozzy; and the adjective puerperal.
Nicknames. Ozzie / Ozzy is a short form for Osvaldo, Oswald, Osborne, Osbourne, and similar personal names or surnames. Two notable musician/actor examples (from the Wikipedia page on the nickname):
John Ozzy Osbourne (born 1948), English lead singer for heavy metal band Black Sabbath, songwriter and star of the reality TV show The Osbournes. [A batless Ozzy, looking genial:]
(#1)
Oswald Ozzie Nelson (1901-1975), American band leader, actor, director, and producer, best known as the father in the sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. [A Harrietless Ozzie, also looking genial:]
(#2)
Plus a lot of baseball players and some football players, for example:
Osvaldo Ozzie Canseco (born 1964), Cuban-born former baseball player, brother of José Canseco
Oswaldo Ozzie Guillén (born 1964), Venezuelan former Major League Baseball player and manager
Puerperal. Who knows where these things come from? In any case, it’s the adjective related to the medical noun puerperium. From NOAD2:
the period of about six weeks after childbirth during which the mother’s reproductive organs return to their original nonpregnant condition. ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin, from puerperus ‘parturient’ (from puer ‘child’ + –parus ‘bearing’).
The adjective is most frequently encountered in the name puerperal fever, a common informal name for a complication of childbirth. From Wikipedia:
Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal infection, is any bacterial infection of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than 38.0 °C (100.4 °F), chills, lower abdominal pain, and possibly bad-smelling vaginal discharge. It usually occurs after the first 24 hours and within the first ten days following delivery.
The most common infection is that of the uterus and surrounding tissues known as puerperal sepsis or postpartum metritis.
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