Why use "of" in the phrase "delivered of a baby"?

Question

With all the "Royal baby" craze comes something that really confuses me. All the news media used pretty much the same sentence to make the announcement: > The Duchess of Cambridge has been delivered **of** a son. A couple of questions: * Why not "The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a son" or "delivered a baby", or something along those lines? * Why is "of" used in this structure, and what purpose does it serve? From a non-native English speaker's perspective, this sentence doesn't seem to make any sense at all to me.

Answer 1

In common usage, this is a strange phrase, but not an incorrect one. The usage refers to the idea that "to deliver" means "to relieve" (or in extreme cases "to rescue from"), rather than the concept of bringing, like you deliver a letter (which is actually rather a funny way to think about giving birth). "Delivered of" is a rather formal phraseology, and a bit archaic.