A berth is 1.) the place where a ship moors, 2.) a fixed sleeping place aboard a ship or train 3.) a position in a sporting event or sporting organization. Berth may be used as a noun or a verb, related terms are berths, berthed, berthing. Berth appears in the English language in the 1620s meaning convenient sea room, most probably coined by adding the suffix -th to the verb bear, in the sense of supporting something.
Birth is 1.) the act of bearing the young, 2.) the fact of having been born, 3.) ancestry, 4.) the beginning of something. Birth may be used as a noun, adjective or a verb, related words are births, birthed, birthing. Birth joins the English language in the early thirteenth century, from the Old Norse word byrth meaning to bear.
Examples
Confident Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) will look to seal a Playoff berth when it meets an inconsistent FC Pune City on Friday at the Salt Lake Stadium. (The Hindu)
Rodgers, from Fall River, Massachusetts, was duty officer aboard the carrier Lexington, off the Midway Islands, when the Japanese planes bombed his ship’s berth at Pearl Harbor. (Capital Gazette)
The stately Packard became their transportation from their shipâs berth to the Empress Hotel to Government House. (The Portland Tribune)
And yet, for black single mothers, those who never married after giving birth had better self-reported health than those who did marry. (The Daily Mail)
Whether you choose to have a birth plan or not, a home birth or not, an epidural or not, it’s necessary to feel supported and not discouraged. (The Huffington Post)
NEW parents Michael and Kyly Clarke have thanked their fans for their support following the birth of their daughter, born five weeks early, but are yet to reveal her name. (The Daily Telegraph)
There had been a catalogue of blunders, which slowly led to the birth of the ISIS and only from a honest collective retrospection, will a feasible solution emerge for the dangerous crisis that keeps the world on edge. (The Asian Tribune)