late 14c., "the young while in the womb or egg" (tending to mean vaguely the embryo in the later stage of development), from Latin fetus (often, incorrectly, foetus) "the bearing or hatching of young, a bringing forth," from Latin base *fe- "to generate, bear," also "to suck, suckle" (see fecund).
In Latin, fetus sometimes was transferred figuratively to the newborn creature itself, or used in a sense of "offspring, brood" (as in Horace's "Germania quos horrida parturit Fetus"), but this was not the basic meaning. It also was used of plants, in the sense of "fruit, produce, shoot," and figuratively as "growth, production." The spelling foetus is sometimes attempted as a learned Latinism, but it is not historic.
实用例句
1. Surely the fetus has a right to life?
胎儿确实有生命权吗？
来自柯林斯例句
2. Microscopic examination of a cell's chromo-somes can reveal the sex of the fetus.
利用显微镜检查细胞染色体可以发现胎儿的性别。
来自柯林斯例句
3. No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system.
没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。
来自辞典例句
4. Unfortunately, his wife had just given birth to a nonviable fetus.
不幸地是，他妻子刚生下了一个不能成活的胎儿。
来自辞典例句
5. A routine scan revealed abnormalities in the fetus.
