Etymologically
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botany

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbɒt.ə.ni/, /ˈbɒt.ni/[1]
  • US: /ˈbɑ.tə.ni/, /ˈbɑt.ni/[1]

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
  • 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