Relating to or belonging to a fetus (an unborn baby).
From Latin 'foetus' meaning 'offspring' or 'unborn child.' The term entered English through Medieval Latin and became the standard term for describing the stage of human development before birth.
The British spelling 'foetal' and American 'fetal' both come from the same Latin root, but the extra vowel shows how British English kept the spelling closer to the original Latin word—it's like a linguistic fossil!
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