Re: New Arvorec words

fetus > foetus

Pompous British back formation?  Sorry, just had to defend us barbaric colonials ;).

-Weiben

On Sat, 02 June 2001, kam@CARROT.CLARA.NET wrote:

>
> Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> wrote :
>
> > Fe:tus in Latin is is both a second-declension adjective (pregnant or
> > fruitful) and a fourth-declension masculine noun (a birthing, hence
> > offspring or a crop). The noun plural is fe:tu:s.
>
> > (This is the same sort of deverbal noun as apparatus from apparo, but
> > in this case the verb did not survive into recorded Latin. Ray and I
> > hashed it out on the list several years ago, and I think we concluded
> > that it might have been something like fe:o/fe:vi/fe:tus/fe:re.
> > Cognates are Danish die and Sam.skr.ta dhayati, which mean to suckle).
>
> And here's me thinking that "fetus" was just a transatlantic barbarism
> for "foetus", cf. estrus/oestrus etc.
>
> If the Latin root is fe:- where does the diphthiong oe come from?
>
> Keith
>
> Afterthought, could "oestrus" and "Easter" be connected??