fruit of the loins
- idiom
- Literature
:
fruto de los lomos
- Many parents hope the fruit of their loins will carry on the family name.
Examples
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She took great pride in the fruit of her loins as they achieved their dreams.
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At the family gathering, he introduced the fruit of his loins to the extended relatives.
-
She is proud of her fruit of the loins.
-
Many parents cherish their fruit of the loins.
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At the family gathering, he introduced the fruit of his loins to the extended relatives.
-
Many parents hope the fruit of their loins will carry on the family name.
-
She took great pride in the fruit of her loins as they achieved their dreams.
Synonyms
145
3.4
A person, animal, or plant that comes from an ancestor
107
3.0
A person's children or the young of animals and plants
20
7.3
Children or other family members who come from a person
13
7.9
Children or grandchildren of a person
Children and later family members of a person or animal
A child or descendant often mentioned in old poetic writing
A child born to a couple
A joking, slightly rude way to call someone's children
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'children/descendants' follows a clear metaphorical mapping: 'fruit' = product/result and 'loins' = reproductive region, so the constituents together point to offspring. However, the phrasing is literary/biblical and uses an archaic body-term ('loins'), so the metaphorical shift and register make the exact meaning less predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase fruit of the loins comes from old Bible language. In that image, loins meant the part of the body that produced children and fruit meant the product, like the fruit of a tree, so the phrase came to mean 'children' or 'descendants'.