# fetus
## English
### Alternative forms

* foetus (UK)
* fœtus (UK, rare)
* phoetus, phœtus, faetus, fætus (all obsolete)

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfiːtəs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* 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.
    The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.
* (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

* 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
* feticide
* fetopathy
* fetucide
* fetus fetishist
* fetuslike
* grandfetus
* multifetus
* superfetation

#### Related terms

* fetus in fetu
* fetus papyraceus

#### Translations

Albanian: fetus m, embrion (sq) m
Arabic: جَنِين m (janīn)
Armenian: պտուղ (hy) (ptuġ)
Asturian: fetu m
Azerbaijani: döl, rüşeym, maya (az)
Basque: umeki, fetu
Belarusian: плод m (plod), заро́дак (be) m (zaródak), эмбрыён m (embryjón)
Bengali: ভ্রূণ (bn) (bhrun), ফিটাস (phiṭaś)
Bulgarian: заро́диш (bg) m (zaródiš), ембрио́н (bg) m (embrión), фе́тус (bg) m (fétus), плод (bg) m (plod)
Burmese: သန္ဓေသား (my) (sandhesa:), ဇီး (my) (ji:)
Catalan: fetus (ca) m
Chinese:
Cantonese: 胎 (toi$^1$), 胎兒 / 胎儿 (toi$^1$ ji$^4$)
Hokkien: 胎兒 / 胎儿 (thai-jî)
Mandarin: 胎兒 / 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) m
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 (ūryq)
Khmer: គភ៌ (km) (kɔə)
Korean: 태아(胎兒) (ko) (taea)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: korpele (ku) n, korpele (ku), cenîn (ku), fetûs (ku)
Kyrgyz: урук (ky) (uruk), түйүлдүк (ky) (tüyüldük)
Lao: ຈາວ (chāo), ພັນ (phan)
Latin: fētus m
Latvian: auglis (lv) m
Lithuanian: vaisius (lt) m
Macedonian: фетус m (fetus), плод (mk) 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:
Dari: جَنِین (janīn)
Iranian Persian: جَنین (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)
Tatar: яралгы (tt) (yaralgı)
Thai: ทารกในครรภ์ (taa-rók-nai-kan)
Tooro: enda
Turkish: fetus (tr), cenin (tr)
Turkmen: şine
Ukrainian: плід (uk) m (plid), заро́док m (zaródok), ембріо́н m (embrión)
Urdu: جَنِین 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

## Catalan
### Etymology

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

### Noun

fetus m (invariable)
* fetus

#### Related terms

* fetal

### References

* ↑ “fetus”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

### 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.

## Indonesian
### Noun

fetus (plural fetus-fetus)
* foetus

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* foetus

### 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: /ˈfeː.tus/, [ˈfeːt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfe.tus/, [ˈfɛːt̪us]

### 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
** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.177–178:dumque petit latebrās fētae catulōsque leaenae, ipse fuit Libycae praeda cruenta feraeAnd 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.)
* (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.)

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

#### Derived terms

* fēta

#### 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.
** 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

Fourth-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* fētālia
* fetālis (Italian)
* fētificō
* fētō
* fētōsus
* fētūra
* fētūrātus

#### Descendants

* Balkan Romance:
** Aromanian: fet, fetu
** Romanian: făt
* Italo-Romance:
** Italian:
    Marche: fetu ⇒ fetone, fetaccia
* Insular Romance:
** Sardinian: fetu, etu (Nuorese), fedu (Logudorese, Campidanese) ⇒ fedale, avedali
* Vulgar Latin: (see there for further descendants)
** *fētiolum
** *fētōnem
* Borrowings:
** → Catalan: fetus
** → English: fetus, foetus
** → French: fœtus
** → Galician: feto
** → Italian: feto
** → Occitan: fètus
** → Portuguese: feto
** → Spanish: feto
** → Tunisian Arabic: فيتوس (fitus)
** → Turkish: fetüs

### References

* ↑ 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

* “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: /fěːtus/
* Hyphenation: fe‧tus

### Noun

fétus m (Cyrillic spelling фе́тус)
* fetus