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English
Etymology
A pluralisation of fetus by erroneous analogy with words like radii and gladii; compare penii and see the usage note below.
Pronunciation
Noun
fetii
- (nonstandard, proscribed, rare) Misconstructed plural form of fetus (the standard plural is fetuses).
1994 May 30, Ralph D. Taite, “Re: Responsibility”, in talk.abortion (Usenet):The hypocrisy was in the Roe decision. Blackmun basically said that fetii have no rights granted by the Constitution, but proceeded to give them rights. If he truly believed that the Constitution gives fetii no rights, why then proceed to give them the little protection he did?
2002 May 17, Jadite, “SQUICK: Auntie Moo and more dolled-up fetii”, in alt.support.childfree (Usenet):On the subject of dead fetii in party hats: I’ve posted this link before, but it seems more “born still angles [sic]” have been added to the collection. The first one (looks like Yoda, clasping a teddy bear) has passed its sell-by date and has grown moldy. Not for the weak of stomach.
2004 January 1, Dan Drake, “Re: TSS gift report”, in alt.tasteless (Usenet):I have posted a picture of the properly assembled centerpiece on ABPT. I must admit, putting it back together Scopata’s way is nicer, the lights give all the fetii a pale pink fetusy look. Much better!
Usage notes
- The plural form *fetii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, fetus derives from Latin’s fourth declension, meaning that its etymologically consistent plural form would be fetus — spelt the same but distinguished in pronunciation as fēʹto͞os (it could also be spelt *fetūs or *fetûs, to show this); the -us → -i rule is a pattern of the second declension. Secondly, even if fetus were a second-declension noun, the plural form would be *feti; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which *fetii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of the words’ stems (radi- and gladi-), and not their case endings.