oestrus

See also: Oestrus and œstrus

English

Alternative forms

œstrus, estrus (U.S.)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin oestrus (“gadfly, sting, frenzy”), from Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eys-, used to form words denoting passion; see also Latin īra (“anger”), Lithuanian aistra (“violent passion”), Avestan 𐬀𐬈𐬯𐬨𐬀‎ (aesma, “anger”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈiːstɹəs/
Audio (UK) (file)

Noun

oestrus (plural oestruses or oestri)

A biting fly of the genus Oestrus; a botfly.
- 1915, American Veterinary Review, page 407:
  […] and which is produced by the larvae of oestri and particularly of Oestrus hemorrhoidalis.
- 1963, Bacteriological Reviews, page 92, column 1:
  If this is inseparable from the oeconomy of nature, it necessarily follows that man must be subject to the depredations of oestri, ichneumons, . . . and perhaps, thousands of others, which the senses, aided by the directions of a correct understanding, may be able to trace in a way that will fall very little short of absolute demonstration.
A bite or sting.
(archaic) A passion or frenzy.
(biology) A female animal's readiness to mate; heat, rut.
- 1910, Cleveland Medical Journal, page 517:
  In those monoestrous species in which the male is capable all the year round, it is found that the oestri of individual females come at different seasons.
- 1939, The Philippine Agriculturist, page 289:
  A vasectomized Philippine carabao bull was used as a teaser to determine the occurrence and recurrence of oestri.
- 1962, Neoplasma, page 152:
  An evaluation was carried out so that the mean number of oestri per one animal was calculated for 14 days in the three periods: […]
- 1980, The Zimbabwe Journal of Agricultural Research, page 73:
  Intervals between oestri and between ovulations in dairy cows within 100 days post partum
- 2001, David Lodge, Thinks...:
  It’s the supremely human act, freely to fuck, not because you are on heat, or in oestrus, like an animal, but to give and receive pleasure.
- 2011, Pepin, Jacques, “The Source”, in The Origins of AIDS, 1st edition, →ISBN, page 29:
  The substantial genital swelling of [female chimpanzees] during oestrus may facilitate transmission of viruses by making the mucosa more fragile.

Derived terms

oestrogen

Translations

a female animal's readiness to mate

Bulgarian: разгонване n (razgonvane)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 發情／发情 (zh) (fāqíng)
Esperanto: oestro
Finnish: kiima (fi)
French: œstrus (fr) m, chaleur (fr) f
German: Brunst (de) f, Hitze (de) f
Greek: οίστρος (el) m (oístros)
Hungarian: tüzelés, ivarzás
Irish: éastras m
Japanese: 発情 (ja) (はつじょう, hatsujō)
Korean: 발정 (ko) (baljeong)
Malay: estrus
Portuguese: estro (pt) m, cio (pt) m
Russian: те́чка (ru) f (téčka), э́струс (ru) m (éstrus)
Spanish: estro (es) m

Anagrams

Souters, Strouse, estrous, ousters, rousest, sestuor, sourest, souters, toruses, tousers, trouses, trousse, tussore

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros).

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoe̯s.trus/, [ˈoe̯s̠t̪rʊs̠]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈes.trus/, [ˈɛst̪rus]

Noun

oestrus m (genitive oestrī); second declension

gadfly

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	oestrus	oestrī
Genitive	oestrī	oestrōrum
Dative	oestrō	oestrīs
Accusative	oestrum	oestrōs
Ablative	oestrō	oestrīs
Vocative	oestre	oestrī

Synonyms

asīlus
tabānus

Descendants

→ Catalan: estre
→ English: oestrus, estrus
→ French: œstre
- → Romanian: estru
→ Italian: estro
→ Middle French: oestrus
→ Piedmontese: estro
→ Portuguese: estro
→ Spanish: estro

References

“oestrus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“oestrus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
oestrus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
“oestrus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers