| 释义 |
fœtus, fetus|ˈfiːtəs|
[a. L. fētus (u stem) offspring (incorrectly written fœtus), f. root *fē- to produce offspring:—Aryan *bhwē-, an extension of root *bheu-, bhu-, to grow, come into being: see be v.
The etymologically preferable spelling with e in this word and its cognates is adopted as the standard form in some recent Dicts., but in actual use is almost unknown. (N.E.D.)]
The young of viviparous animals in the womb, and of oviparous animals in the egg, when fully developed.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xlix. (1495) 167 The chylde that is conceyued in the moder hyght Fetus in latyn. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 397 At this time the burthen is called Fœtus of the Latines, and Embryon of the Greekes. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Digress. 373 The Fœtus respires in the Womb. 1796De Serra in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 500 The gems as correspondent to living born fœtuses. 1847–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 867 We have yet to learn how the fœtus is matured after the exhaustion of this supply.
transf.1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 142 The soil, pregnant and big with fœtus's of all imaginable..structures of body. |