Etymology From Middle English engendren, from Old French engendrer, from Latin ingenerāre.
1
Obsolete To beget (of a man); to bear or conceive (of a woman).
O Error ſoone conceyu’d, Thou neuer com’ſt vnto a happy byrth, But kil’ſt the Mother that engendred thee.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 129, column 1:
2
To give existence to, to produce (living creatures).
Like all interesting literary figures, he is full of tacit as well as of uttered reference to the conditions that engendered him[…].1891, Henry James, “James Russell Lowell”, in Essays in London and Elsewhere, page 60:
3
To bring into existence (a situation, quality, result etc.); to give rise to, cause, create.
ME thinkes vertue is another manner of thing, and much more noble than the inclinations vnto goodneſſe, which in vs are ingendered.1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Crueltie”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 243:
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart managed to engender "Better Be Good to Me" and "I Must Love You," but they were neither lyrically nor musically up to standards of their Garrick Gaieties or A Connecticut Yankee.1928 October 8, “New Plays in Manhattan”, in Time:
2 more examples
Manufacturing is not simply about brute or emergency economics. It's also about a sense of involvement and achievement engendered by shaping and crafting useful, interesting, well-designed things.2009 December 21, Jonathan Glancey, “The art of industry”, in The Guardian:
The performance on the Wharfedale Line is among the best on Northern's network, and Hornby says the posters, along with displays on station ticket machines and in local media, have engendered a sense of competition with managers on other lines, who want to see this type of marketing on their routes. This new in-your-face type marketing can now be seen across much of the North of England.2026 January 21, Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, number 1053, page 31:
4
To assume form; to come into existence; to be caused or produced.
Thick Clouds are ſpread, and Storms engender there, And Thunders Voice, which wretched Mortals fear, And Winds that on their Wings, cold Winter bear.a. 1700, “Ovid’s Metamorphoses”, in John Dryden, transl., Poems on Various Occasions; and Translations from Several Authors, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1701, book I, page 147:
But that the bodies of the Reprobate, who make the Kingdome of Satan, ſhall alſo be glorious, or ſpirituall bodies, or that they ſhall bee as the Angels of God, neither eating, nor, drinking, nor engendering[…], there is no place of Scripture to prove it[…]1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Kingdome of Darknesse”, in Leviathan, Or The Matter Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: Andrew Crooke, page 343:
I fled, but he purſu’d (though more, it ſeems, Inflam’d with luſt then rage) and ſwifter far, Me overtook his mother all diſmaid, And in embraces forcible and foule Ingendring with me, of that rape begot Theſe yelling Monſters that with ceaſleſs cry Surround me, as thou ſawſt[…]1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 790–800:
To endow with gender; to create gender or enhance the importance of gender.
Critical theory
Gender, they emphasize, is socially constructed by our surroundings. We are en-gendered by our families, our teachers, and by the images in our music, films, media and fashions.1981 April 11, Group Material Collective Changing Arttistic Definitions, “Philip Shehadi”, in Gay Community News, page 6:
As such they are an important way of understanding both how texts are engendered (how they articulate particular sex or gender role) and how they engender their consumers.1992, Anne Cranny-Francis, Engendered Fictions, page 2:
1 more example
I focus on […] the efforts of feminist critics of science to examine the engendered origins and implications of scientific rationality and modern epistemology.1996, Steven C Ward, Reconfiguring Truth, page xviii: