The unborn child is not to blame

For bastard spelling of his name...

...The Romans knew their Latin best.
To Vigil, Ovid, and the rest
He was a FETUS and so stayed
Till later Isidore made
A diphthong of the vowel E
Confusing us and Dr. B.
The FETAL noun you can relate
To the verb feo — generate.
Its origin cannot be hung
On the verb foeto — bring forth young.
If so, then FOETUS should adorn
The newborn child, not the unborn,
And so in mother's arms we'd see
Our FOETAL physiology.
To other words the diphthong came,
But they've their old form back again
You won't be thanked in '69
To tell your bird she's foeminine.
To call the FETUS transatlantic
Will drive the editors quite frantic
Ere Norsemen on Cape Cod were wrecked,
The spelling FETUS was correct.

Geoffrey Chamberlain
"Fetus Falsified"
1969