Fetus

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfiːtəs/

Definitions

1. An unborn offspring of a mammal, particularly a developing human from approximately eight weeks after conception until birth
2. A prenatal stage in the life of mammals characterized by the development of the organism after eight weeks of conception until delivery
3. A developing human organism in the womb, recognized typically after eight weeks from conception and prior to birth

Etymology: The Latin "fētus" meant "offspring," but it also carried the sense of "bearing" or "bringing forth," as it came from the verb "fēre," to bring forth. English took the word directly from Latin, which makes it a learned borrowing rather than a word that passed down through everyday speech. That is the reason it feels so clinical: it entered the language as a term for scholars and physicians before it became a common household word. The surprise is that English already had a close relative. "Fawn," the young deer, comes from the same Latin root by a different path, through Old French, where it was reshaped into a familiar, everyday form. The two words are doublets, meaning two forms of one original word that reached English at different times and by different routes. One ended up describing a newborn animal in the field, while the other became the precise medical term used in the womb.

Synonyms: embryo, offspring, unborn child