oestrus

• œstrus (archaic)
• estrus (US)

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈiːstɹəs/, /ˈɛstɹəs/

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oestrus (countable and uncountable, plural oestruses or oestri)

1. (countable) 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.

2. (countable) A bite or sting.
3. (countable, archaic) A passion or frenzy.
4. (countable and uncountable, 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, Jacques Pepin, “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.

• oestrogen

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

From Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoe̯s.trus/, [ˈoe̯s̠t̪rʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈes.trus/, [ˈɛst̪rus]

oestrus m (genitive oestrī); second declension

1. gadfly

Second-declension noun.

• asīlus
• tabānus

• “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