superfetate

English

Etymology

From Latin superfetare, from super (“above, over”) + fetare (“to bring forth”).

Verb

superfetate (third-person singular simple present superfetates, present participle superfetating, simple past and past participle superfetated)

1. To conceive after a prior conception, but before the birth of the offspring.
   • 1910, Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson, The History of Herodotus, Book 3:

     The hare, for instance, which is hunted alike by beasts, birds, and men, breeds so abundantly as even to superfetate, a thing which is true of no other animal. You find in a hare's belly, at one and the same time, some of the young all covered with fur, others quite naked, others again just fully formed in the womb, while the hare perhaps has lately conceived afresh.

   • 1938, Pliny the Elder, translated by H. Rackham, Natural History, Book 10:

     Rabbits breed in every month of the year, and superfetate, as do hares; after giving birth they pair again at once.

Derived terms

• superfetation

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “superfetate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)