fetus

See also: foetus and fétus

English

A fetus at eight weeks from conception

Alternative forms

• (UK) foetus
• (UK, rare) fœtus
• (obsolete, erroneous) phoetus, phœtus
• (obsolete, erroneous) faetus, fætus

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːtəs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtəs

Noun

fetus (plural fetuses or (hypercorrect) feti or (misconstructed) fetii)

1. (Australia, Canada, US) 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. (Australia, Canada, US) A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.

   The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.

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/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

• fetal
• fetus fetishist
• grandfetus
• multifetus

Related terms

• fetus in fetu
• fetus papyraceus

Translations

an unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal

• Albanian: fetus m, embrion (sq) m
• Arabic: جَنِين‎ m (janīn)
• Armenian: պտուղ (hy) (ptuł)
• Asturian: fetu m
• Azerbaijani: döl, rüşeym, maya (az)
• Basque: umeki, fetu
• Belarusian: плод m (plod), заро́дак (be) m (zaródak), эмбрыён m (embryjón)
• Bengali: ভ্রূণ (bhrun), ফিটাস (phiṭaś)
• Bulgarian: заро́диш (bg) m (zaródiš), ембрио́н (bg) m (embrión), фе́тус (bg) m (fétus), плод (bg) m (plod)
• Burmese: သန္ဓေသား (my) (sandhesa:)
• Catalan: fetus (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 胎兒 (zh), 胎儿 (zh) (tāir), 胎 (zh) (tāi)

• Czech: plod (cs) m
• Danish: foster (da) n
• Dutch: foetus (nl) n
• Egyptian: (mꜣy)
• Esperanto: feto (eo)
• Estonian: loode, feetus
• Faroese: fostur n
• Finnish: sikiö (fi)
• French: fœtus (fr) m, fétus (fr) m
• Galician: feto (gl) m
• Georgian: ნაყოფი (naq̇opi)
• German: Fötus (de) n
• Greek: έμβρυο (el) n (émvryo)

  Ancient: ἔμβρυον n (émbruon), κύημα n (kúēma)

• Greenlandic: naartu, ilumiu, naartoq
• Hebrew: עוּבָּר‎ (he) m ('ubar), שְׁלִיל‎ m (shlil) (as distinct from an embryo)
• Hindi: भ्रूण (hi) m (bhrūṇ)
• Hungarian: magzat (hu)
• Icelandic: fóstur (is) n
• Ido: feto (io)
• Indonesian: janin (id)
• Irish: féatas m
• Italian: feto (it) m
• Japanese: 胎児 (ja) (たいじ, taiji)
• Kazakh: ұрық (kk) (urıq)
• Khmer: គភ៌ (km) (kɔə)
• Korean: 태아(胎兒) (ko) (taea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: korpele (ku) n, korpele (ku)

• Kyrgyz: урук (ky) (uruq), түйүлдүк (ky) (tüyüldük)
• Lao: ຈາວ (chāo), ພັນ (phan)
• Latin: fētus m
• Latvian: auglis m
• Lithuanian: vaisius (lt) m
• Macedonian: фетус m (fetus), плод m (plod)
• Malay: fetus, janin (ms), janin (ms)
• Northern Sami: ohki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: foster n

  Nynorsk: foster n

• Occitan: fètus (oc) m
• Old Norse: fóstr n
• Pashto: جنين‎ (ps) m (janin)
• Persian: جنین‎ (fa) (janin)
• Polish: płód (pl) m
• Portuguese: feto (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਭਰੂਣ m (bharūṇ)
• Quechua: sullu
• Romanian: făt (ro) m
• Russian: плод (ru) m (plod), заро́дыш (ru) m (zaródyš), эмбрио́н (ru) m (embrión)
• Sanskrit: गर्भ (sa) m (garbha), भ्रूण (sa) m or n (bhrūṇa)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фе́тус m, пло̑д m

  Roman: fétus (sh) m, plȏd (sh) m

• Slovak: plod m
• Slovene: fetus (sl) m, plod (sl) m
• Spanish: feto (es) m
• Swedish: foster (sv) n
• Tajik: ҳомила (homila), ҷанин (janin), нутфа (tg) (nutfa)
• Thai: ทารกในครรภ์ (taa-rók-nai-kan)
• Turkish: fetus (tr), cenin (tr)
• Turkmen: şine
• Ukrainian: плід (uk) m (plid), заро́док m (zaródok), ембріо́н m (embrión)
• Urdu: جنین‎ m (janīn)
• Uyghur: ھامىلە‎ (hamile)
• Uzbek: homila (uz), urugʻ (uz), embrion (uz)
• Vietnamese: thai (vi), bào thai (vi)
• Welsh: ffetws (cy) m, rhith m
• Yiddish: וולד‎ m (vlad)

See also

• embryo

References

• Health Online

Anagrams

• EF-Tus, UTFSE, fuets

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin fētus, attested from circa 1900.

Noun

fetus m (plural fetus)

1. fetus

Related terms

• fetal

Further reading

• “fetus” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “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.

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Latin

Alternative forms

• foetus

Etymology

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

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfeː.tus/, [ˈfeːt̪ʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.tus/, [ˈfɛːt̪us]

Adjective

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

1. pregnant, full of young
2. fruitful, productive
3. youthful, young
4. of one who has recently given birth; nursing

Declension

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

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: fet(u), featã
  • Istro-Romanian: fetĕ
  • Romanian: făt, fată
• Italo-Romance:
  • Sicilian: fitu
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: fede
  • Piedmontese: fèja, fea
  • Venetian: feda
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: feya
  • ⇒ Old French: faon
    • French: faon
    • → English: fawn
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: feda (septentrional)
  • Occitan: feda ⇒ fedon
  • Vivaro-Alpine: fea, feia, fià, fié
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: fedu, fetu, etu, fedus

References

• “fetus”, in Charlton T[homas] Lewis; Charles [Lancaster] Short (1879) […] A New Latin Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.: American Book Company; Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Noun

fētus m (genitive fētūs); fourth declension

1. A bearing, birth, bringing forth.
2. Offspring, young, progeny.
3. Fruit, produce.
4. (figuratively) Growth, production.

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

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

Related terms

• fētālia
• fetalis
• fētificō
• fētō

• fētōsus
• fētūra
• fētūrātus

Descendants

• → Catalan: fetus
• → English: fetus, foetus
• → French: fœtus
• → Galician: feto
• → Italian: feto
• → Occitan: fètus
• → Portuguese: feto
• → Spanish: feto
• → Tunisian Arabic: فيتوس‎ (fitus)

References

• “fetus”, in Charlton T[homas] Lewis; Charles [Lancaster] Short (1879) […] A New Latin Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.: American Book Company; 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

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Romanian

Etymology

From Latin foetus

Noun

fetus m (plural fetuși)

1. fetus

Declension

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

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

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

Noun

fétus m (Cyrillic spelling фе́тус)

1. fetus

Declension

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