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??