means The state or condition of being a parent, with all the responsibilities, joys, and exhaustion that raising a child entails.

from A straightforward English compound: "parent" plus the suffix "-hood." The word "parent" comes through Old French from the Latin "parens," meaning "one who brings forth," from the verb "parere," to give birth or produce. The "-hood" is an old Germanic suffix (Old English "-had") meaning a state, rank, or condition — the same one that gives us "childhood," "neighborhood," and "knighthood." So at root it simply means "the condition of one who has brought forth."