anther

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin anthera,^[2][3][4] and, in several dictionaries, also borrowed from French anthère.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The term continues Latin anthēra (“a salve or medicine made from flowers”),^[2][5][10] itself from Ancient Greek ἀνθηρά (anthērá),^[2][9] the feminine of ἀνθηρός (anthērós, “flowery”),^[2][9][8] from ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”).^[2][9][5] Etymonline traces the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *andh- (“to bloom”),^[11] and Barnhart gives Proto-Indo-European *ándhos, comparing Albanian ënde (“bloom”);^[8] Etymonline adds Old Irish ainder (“young girl”) and Welsh anner (“young cow”).^[11] The OED points out that the French word, after a single record of 1314, appears only from 1787 for the part of a stamen.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

English first had the Latin form anthera, for the central part of a rose or other flower and a medicine made from it, about 1425 in a translation of Guy de Chauliac.^[2] The English form anther is first quoted in 1783, in a translation of Linnaeus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, herbalists often made their flower medicines from the reproductive part of the flower, and that is how the name passed to the pollen-bearing organ;^[12] the OED likewise notes that the Latin medicines often consisted of the inner organs of flowers.^[2] The medicinal use died out in the late 17th or early 18th century.^[7][2] The botanical use appeared in 1706, still as Latin anthera,^[2][3] and was "indeterminately applied" until about 1759, Barnhart says, before settling in meaning and form by 1791, in Erasmus Darwin's Botanic Garden.^[8][11] Ayto traces the Greek noun further back, to "the part of a plant growing above ground", before it narrowed to "flower".^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – anthera, the central part of a rose or other flower, and a preparation made from it.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "medical extract of flowers" to the 1550s.^[11]
• 1706 – anthera, the part of a stamen that holds the pollen, in Phillips's New World of Words.^[2][3]
• 1783 – the form anther.^[2]
• 1870 – compounds such as anther-cell and anther-lobe.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The part of a stamen in which pollen develops, usually two lobes on a filament.^[4][3][2]
2. (obsolete, c. 1425–1706) A medicine made from flowers.^[2][7]

Word family

• antheral
• antherless
• antheridium

Related words

• anthology
• chrysanthemum
• perianth
• polyanthus
• exanthema

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press