baby farmer
- noun
- /ˈbeɪbi ˈfɑrmər/
- Archaic
:
criada de bebés
- In Victorian England, a baby farmer often cared for illegitimate infants in unsafe conditions for a fee.
Examples
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Newspaper articles from the 1800s often exposed the cruel practices of some baby farmers.
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The authorities arrested the notorious baby farmer after discovering evidence of child neglect.
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In Victorian England, a baby farmer might take in dozens of children at a time for a fee.
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The baby farmer took in many infants.
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Many baby farmers operated in secrecy.
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Reports in the 1800s revealed how some baby farmers neglected the children they were supposed to care for.
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The police uncovered a scandal involving a baby farmer who charged families for taking care of their unwanted babies.
Surface Forms
Morphology
baby + farmer
The meaning of 'baby farmer' is historically specific and lexicalized: it denotes a person who took in infants for a fee (often neglectfully or illegitimately), a nuance not suggested by the literal words. A B1 learner knowing 'baby' and 'farmer' would likely interpret 'farmer' in its agricultural sense or at best guess 'someone who looks after/raises babies' but would not predict the paid, neglectful/historical connotation; thus the expression is not derivable from its parts.
Etymology
The noun baby farmer comes from the 1800s, when some people took in babies 'for a fee' and cared for many children like a farmer cares for animals. Because some of these caregivers were careless or cruel, the term came to mean someone who takes money to look after babies but does so in poor, 'neglectful' conditions.
