# oestrus
## English
### Alternative forms

* œstrus (archaic)
* estrus (US)

### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin oestrus (“gadfly, sting, frenzy”), from Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eys-, used to form words denoting passion; see also Latin īra (“anger”), Lithuanian aistra (“violent passion”), Avestan 𐬀𐬈𐬯𐬨𐬀 (aesma, “anger”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈiːstɹəs/, /ˈɛstɹəs/
* Audio (UK):(file)

### Noun

oestrus (countable and uncountable, plural oestruses or oestri)
* (countable) A biting fly of the genus Oestrus; a botfly.
** 1915, American Veterinary Review, page 407:[…] and which is produced by the larvae of oestri and particularly of Oestrus hemorrhoidalis.
** 1963, Bacteriological Reviews, page 92, column 1:If this is inseparable from the oeconomy of nature, it necessarily follows that man must be subject to the depredations of oestri, ichneumons, . . . and perhaps, thousands of others, which the senses, aided by the directions of a correct understanding, may be able to trace in a way that will fall very little short of absolute demonstration.
* (countable) A bite or sting.
* (countable, archaic) A passion or frenzy.
* (countable and uncountable, biology) A female animal's readiness to mate; heat, rut.
** 1910, Cleveland Medical Journal, page 517:In those monoestrous species in which the male is capable all the year round, it is found that the oestri of individual females come at different seasons.
** 1939, The Philippine Agriculturist, page 289:A vasectomized Philippine carabao bull was used as a teaser to determine the occurrence and recurrence of oestri.
** 1962, Neoplasma, page 152:An evaluation was carried out so that the mean number of oestri per one animal was calculated for 14 days in the three periods: […]
** 1980, The Zimbabwe Journal of Agricultural Research, page 73:Intervals between oestri and between ovulations in dairy cows within 100 days post partum
** 2001, David Lodge, Thinks...:It’s the supremely human act, freely to fuck, not because you are on heat, or in oestrus, like an animal, but to give and receive pleasure.
** 2011, Jacques Pepin, “The Source”, in The Origins of AIDS, 1st edition, →ISBN, page 29:The substantial genital swelling of [female chimpanzees] during oestrus may facilitate transmission of viruses by making the mucosa more fragile.

#### Derived terms

* oestrogen

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Souters, Strouse, estrous, ousters, rousest, sestuor, sourest, souters, toruses, tousers, trouses, trousse, tussore

## Latin
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈoe̯s.trus/, [ˈoe̯s̠t̪rʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈes.trus/, [ˈɛst̪rus]

### Noun

oestrus m (genitive oestrī); second declension
* gadfly

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Synonyms

* asīlus
* tabānus

#### Descendants

* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *oestricula
** Aromanian: streclji
** Romanian: streche
* → Catalan: estre
* → English: oestrus, estrus
* → French: œstre
** → Romanian: estru
* → Italian: estro
* → Middle French: oestrus
* → Piedmontese: estro
* → Portuguese: estro
* → Spanish: estro
* → Translingual: Oestrus

### References

* “oestrus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “oestrus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* oestrus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “oestrus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers