botany

Etymology

It is formed from English botanic + -y,^[2][3][4][5] after pairs such as astronomy and astronomical;^[6][7][8] the American Heritage Dictionary calls it a back-formation from the earlier adjectives.^[9] The revised OED instead takes it directly from the Greek noun with the English suffix.^[10] Botanic is from French botanique or directly from Medieval Latin botanicus (“of herbs”),^[7][10][11] from Ancient Greek βοτανικός (botanikós, “of herbs”),^[10][12] from βοτάνη (botánē, “plant, grass, pasture, fodder”),^[10][7][12] a derivative of βόσκω (bóskō, “to feed, tend”).^[11][12][13] Etymonline notes that the Greek words had more to do with pasture than with plants.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The science of plants: 1647, in A. Ross's Mystagogus Poeticus,^[10] in the 1690s in Etymonline,^[7] and 1683 in Merriam-Webster.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The adjectives came first: botanical and botanic are recorded from the 1650s.^[7][10] Johnson (1755) defined botany as "the science of plants".^[14] From 1717 it also meant the plants of a given place, from 1774 a book on the subject; since 1873 it has also meant the botanical characteristics of a particular plant.^[10] Captain Cook named Botany Bay in Australia in 1770 for the great variety of plants found there;^[7][5] from 1864 botany also meant a fine merino wool, short for Botany wool, after the wool produced there.^[10][6][4] In Yorkshire dialect botany was knitting wool.^[15]

Timeline

• 1647 – the science of plants.^[10]
• 1717 – the plants of a particular area.^[10]
• 1770 – Botany Bay named by Captain Cook.^[7][5]
• 1774 – a work on botany.^[10]
• 1864 – Botany wool.^[10]
• 1873 – the botanical characteristics of a plant or group.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The scientific study of plants, a branch of biology: She took a degree in botany.^[16][6][10]
2. The plant life of a particular region or time; flora.^[16][6][10]
3. The biological characteristics of a particular plant or group of plants.^[16][6][10]
4. A fine grade of merino wool, originally from Australia; also called botany wool.^[6][10]

Word family

• botanist
• botanical
• botanise
• botanize
• ethnobotany
• geobotany
• paleobotany

Related words

• botanic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins