Definitions and meaning of fetus
fetus
English
Alternative forms
- foetus (UK)
- fœtus (UK, rare)
- phoetus, phœtus, faetus, fætus (all obsolete)
Etymology
A learned borrowing from Latin fētus (“offspring”). Doublet of fawn.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfiːtəs/
-
- Rhymes: -iːtəs
Noun
fetus (plural fetuses or fetus or (hypercorrect) feti or (misconstructed) fetii) (American spelling, also Canada, Australia)
- An unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal.
- 1963, John W Choate, Henry A. Thiede, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Transcript, Volume 2
- Several feti were removed from every rats' uterus, stripped of their membranes and allowed to lie in the peritoneal cavity connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord and with the placenta still attached to the uterine wall.
- A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.
- (archaic) A neonate.
Usage notes
- The form fetus is the primary spelling in the United States, Canada, Australia, and in the scientific community, whereas foetus is still commonly used in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations.
- The nominative and accusative plural of fētus in Latin is fētūs with lengthened second vowel. The hypercorrect plurals feti and fetii are thus comparable to the hypercorrect plural octopi of octopus (the Ancient Greek plural of octopus is octopodes).
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
See also
References
Further reading
- fetus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
Catalan
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin fētus. First attested in c. 1900. Doublet of feda.
Noun
fetus m (invariable)
- fetus
Related terms
References
Further reading
- “fetus”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April
- “fetus” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “fetus” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Indonesian
Noun
fetus (plural fetus-fetus)
- foetus
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *fētos, from earlier *θētos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-to-s, from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to nurse, suckle”), see also Sanskrit धयति (dháyati, “to suck, suckle”), Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬎 (daēnu), Old Armenian դիեմ (diem, “to suck mother's milk”), Lithuanian žįsti (“to suckle, nurse”), and Old Church Slavonic доити (doiti, “to breastfeed, suckle”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈfeː.tʊs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈfɛː.t̪us]
Adjective
fētus (feminine fēta, neuter fētum); first/second-declension adjective
- pregnant, full of young
- of one who has recently given birth, of one that has newly delivered; nursing
- (figuratively) fruitful, fertile, productive, teeming with, full of, big
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
Derived terms
References
- “fetus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Noun
fētus m (genitive fētūs); fourth declension
- A bearing, birth, bringing forth.
- Offspring, young, progeny.
- Fruit, produce.
- (figuratively) Growth, production.
- (New Latin) A fetus.
Declension
Fourth-declension noun.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
Further reading
- “fetus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “fetus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- fetus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “fetus”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 246
Romanian
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin fētus. Doublet of făt.
Noun
fetus m (plural fetuși)
- fetus
Declension
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin foetus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fěːtus/
- Hyphenation: fe‧tus
Noun
fétus m (Cyrillic spelling фе́тус)
- fetus
Declension
Source: wiktionary.org