What’s that sound you hear ringing out around maternity wards? Those uncertain warbling cries as lungs labour for the first time? The pain and displeasure as air is forced through vocal chords after a new born child is forced into the world? That’s vagitus. It’s the crying of a newborn baby. Vagitus also forms the basis for the medical term vagitus uterinus, which is the crying of a baby still in the womb. Etymology: from Latin vāgiō (cry, or wail).

“Ronald listened as his mother’s cries of labour gave way to his brother’s vagitus. He squeezed his hands into tiny fists and vowed eternal hatred for the little beast.”