superfetation

• superfoetation

From Latin superfetare (“conceive while pregnant”), from super- +‎ fetus.

• IPA^(key): /suːpəfəˈteɪʃən/

superfetation (countable and uncountable, plural superfetations)

1. The formation of a fetus while another fetus is already present in the uterus.
2. An excessive accumulation; a superfluous addition.
   • 1992, Geoffrey Wall, translator of Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

     These gentlemen were greatly astonished at Bovary's romantic ideas, and the pharmacist hurried in to say to him: "This velvet looks to me rather a superfetation. Besides, the expense..."

• superfetate
• superfetatious