>
>
>although, really, when you think about it, wet nursing assumes that
>> you need to modify 'nursing' because there is also dry nursing (and
>> yes that is what it was called) -- so there must have been a term or
>> way of refering to the practice before wet nursing.... wonder what, or
>> if this is really before modern English evolved.
>
I find this unclear, as well. We can assume that the normal, unmodified
term is nursing, and it means being breastfed by a mother. Dry-nursing
would mean being given other foods, and perhaps being comforted without
breastfeeding. The words that are added suggest that is not the normal
situation. It is interesting that the term wet-nursing evolved later
than dry-nursing. This suggests that, unless the practice of
non-maternal breastfeeding was named something else, such as
cross-nursing, than the practice was not in common use or else was not
defined as something unusual until later on.
In French, the use of « allaitement » is often accompanied by « maternel
» to specify that it is mother's milk. I haven't dated the beginning of
use of that term.
Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, PhD and C.Trans.

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