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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A 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 (misconstruction) 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.
    • 2019 January 23, Susan Scutti, “Climate change will affect gender ratio among newborns, scientists say”, in CNN‎[1]:
      Though scientists do not know how stress affects gestation, Fukuda theorizes that the vulnerability of Y-bearing sperm cells, male embryos and/or male fetuses to stress is why “subtle significant changes in sex ratios” occur. […] The factors that filter out who “gets through” from conception to birth include chromosomal or genetic abnormalities of the fetus or the mother’s stress response to changes in her environment, Catalano said.
  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 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

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Translations

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See also

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References

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Further reading

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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.

Pronunciation

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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, 2026

Further reading

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Indonesian

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Noun

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fetus (plural fetus-fetus)

  1. foetus

Latin

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Proto-Italic *fētos, from earlier *θētos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-to-s, from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to nurse, suckle”) + *-tós,[1] 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”).

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, Ovidius, 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, Vergilius, Aeneis 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.)
Declension
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First/second-declension adjective.

singular plural
masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter
nominative fētus fēta fētum fētī fētae fēta
genitive fētī fētae fētī fētōrum fētārum fētōrum
dative fētō fētae 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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Etymology 2

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From Proto-Italic *fētus, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-tu-s, from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”) + *-tus; alternatively, formed within Italic, equivalent to a verb *feō +‎ *-tus (Latin -tus (forming action nouns)).

Noun

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fētus m (genitive fētūs); fourth declension

  1. (rare) a bearing, birth, bringing forth
    • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 485–488:
      Nunc de Alcumena dudum quod dixi minus,
      hodie illa pariet filios geminos duos
      alter decumo post mense nascetur puer
      quam seminatust, alter mense septumo;
      eorum Amphitruonis alter est, alter Iovis:
      verum minori puero maior est pater,
      minor maiori.
      Iamne hoc scitis quid siet?
      Sed Alcumenae huius honoris gratia
      pater curavit uno ut fetu fieret,
      uno ut labore absolvat aerumnas duas.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. (chiefly poetic) offspring, young, progeny
    • 45 BCE, Cicero, De natura deorum 2.128:
      Atque ut intellegamus nihil horum esse fortuitum et haec omnia esse opera providae sollertisque naturae, quae multiplices fetus procreant, ut sues, ut canes, iis mammarum data est multitudo, quas easdem paucas habent eae bestiae, quae pauca gignunt.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 6.638–644:
      Nec mora, traxit Ityn, veluti Gangetica cervae
      lactentem fetum per silvas tigris opacas,
      utque domus altae partem tenuere remotam,
      tendentemque manus et iam sua fata videntem
      et 'mater! mater!' clamantem et colla petentem
      ense ferit Procne, lateri qua pectus adhaeret,
      nec vultum vertit
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  3. (of plants) fruit, product; bearing, produce
    • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Vergilius, Georgicon 2.519:
      Venit hiems: teritur Sicyonia baca trapetis,
      glande sues laeti redeunt, dant arbuta silvae;
      et varios ponit fetus autumnus et alte
      mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis.
      • Translation by James B. Greenough
        Winter is come: in olive-mills they bruise
        The Sicyonian berry; acorn-cheered
        The swine troop homeward; woods their arbutes yield;
        So, various fruit sheds Autumn, and high up
        On sunny rocks the mellowing vintage bakes.
  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.

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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  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “fētus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 217

Further reading

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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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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative fetus fetusul fetuși fetușii
genitive-dative fetus fetusului 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 inan (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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