Wiktionary

fetus

See also: foetus and fétus

English

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Views of a Foetus in the Womb. Leonardo da Vinci

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin fētus (“offspring”). Doublet of fawn.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fetus (plural fetuses or fetus or (hypercorrect) feti or (misconstructed) fetii) (American spelling, also Canada, Australia)

  1. 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.
  2. A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.
    The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.
  3. (archaic) A neonate
    • 1959 [1689], John Locke, chapter 6, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 2, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., page 77:
      The real essence of that or any other sort of substances, it is evident, we know not; and therefore are so undetermined in our nominal essences, which we make ourselves, that, if several men were to be asked concerning some oddly-shaped fœtus, as soon as born, whether it were a man or no, it is past doubt one should meet with different answers.

Usage notes

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  • 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/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

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Translations

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See also

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References

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin fētus. First attested in c. 1900.[1] Doublet of feda.

Noun

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fetus m (invariable)

  1. fetus
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References

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  1. ^ “fetus”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024

Further reading

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Indonesian

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Noun

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fetus (first-person possessive fetusku, second-person possessive fetusmu, third-person possessive fetusnya)

  1. foetus

Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Italic *fētos, from earlier *θētos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(i)-to, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-, see also Sanskrit धयति (dhayati), Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬎 (daēnu), Old Armenian դիեմ (diem), Lithuanian žįsti and Old Church Slavonic доити (doiti).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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fētus (feminine fēta, neuter fētum); first/second-declension adjective

  1. pregnant, full of young
  2. of one who has recently given birth, of one that has newly delivered; nursing
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.177–178:
      dumque petit latebrās fētae catulōsque leaenae,
      ipse fuit Libycae praeda cruenta ferae
      And while he was seeking the hiding places and the cubs of a nursing lioness, he himself became the bloodstained prey of the Libyan wild [beast].
      (See Hyas.)
  3. (figuratively) fruitful, fertile, productive, teeming with, full of, big
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.237–238:
      “[...] Scandit fātālis māchina mūrōs / fēta armīs.”
      “The engine of our fate climbs the walls, teeming with armed warriors.”
      (The wooden horse entering Troy will soon “give birth” to the Greek soldiers hidden in its “womb.” See also: machina.)
  4. youthful, young

Declension

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First/second-declension adjective.

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative fētus fēta fētum fētī fētae fēta
Genitive fētī fētae fētī fētōrum fētārum fētōrum
Dative fētō fētō fētīs
Accusative fētum fētam fētum fētōs fētās fēta
Ablative fētō fētā fētō fētīs
Vocative fēte fēta fētum fētī fētae fēta

Derived terms

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References

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Noun

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fētus m (genitive fētūs); fourth declension

  1. A bearing, birth, bringing forth.
  2. Offspring, young, progeny.
  3. Fruit, produce.
  4. (figuratively) Growth, production.
  5. (New Latin) A fetus.
    • 1842, Franciscus Arv[idus] Snellman, Dissertatio Academica Excerebrationis Fetus in Partu Legem Examinatura, Helsingforsiae: Ex officina typographica Frenckelliana, page 30:
      Postremo, comparatione inter excerebrationem fetus et sectionem caesaream ac partum praematurum artificialem facta, nobis apparuit, containdicatam esse excerebrationem: […]
      Finally, the comparison having been completed between the excerebration of the fetus, the caesarean section, and premature induced birth, excerebration has appeared to us to be contraindicated: […]

Declension

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Fourth-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative fētus fētūs
Genitive fētūs fētuum
Dative fētuī fētibus
Accusative fētum fētūs
Ablative fētū fētibus
Vocative fētus fētūs

Derived terms

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Descendants

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References

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Further reading

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  • “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.

Romanian

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin fētus. Doublet of făt.

Noun

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fetus m (plural fetuși)

  1. fetus

Declension

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Declension of fetus
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) fetus fetusul (niște) fetuși fetușii
genitive/dative (unui) fetus fetusului (unor) fetuși fetușilor
vocative fetusule fetușilor

Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin foetus.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /fěːtus/
  • Hyphenation: fe‧tus

Noun

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fétus m (Cyrillic spelling фе́тус)

  1. fetus

Declension

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Declension of fetus
singular plural
nominative fetus fetusi
genitive fetusa fetusa
dative fetusu fetusima
accusative fetus fetuse
vocative fetuse fetusi
locative fetusu fetusima
instrumental fetusom fetusima
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