hormone

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ὁρμῶν (hormôn, “setting in motion”), the present participle of ὁρμάω (hormáō, “to set in motion, urge on”),^[2][3][4] with its ending made to match the chemical suffix -one.^[2][5] The verb comes from ὁρμή (hormḗ, “onset, impulse”),^[2][6] which Etymonline and the AHD trace to Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to move, set in motion”),^[6][4] and Klein to Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to run, flow”), the root of serum.^[7] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to ὄρνυμι (órnumi, “to rouse”).^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An organic compound secreted into the body fluids by one group of cells that regulates the activity of others: 1905, in a paper by the physiologist Ernest Starling in the Lancet.^[2][6] Etymonline notes that Hippocrates had used the Greek word for a vital principle.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1911 the word was also applied to plants, for compounds that regulate growth, and to synthetic substances with the same effect.^[2][9] For a time (from 1914) some physiologists restricted it to compounds that stimulate rather than inhibit; that use is now rare.^[2] In the plural, hormones are a person's sex hormones seen as the cause of moods or behaviour,^[10] and American campus slang of the 1980s called a sexually forward person a hormone.^[11]

Timeline

• 1905 – Starling's term in physiology.^[2][6][5]
• 1911 – plant hormones.^[2]
• 1914 – restricted to stimulating compounds (now rare).^[2]
• 1989 – US campus slang, a sexually aggressive person.^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A substance made by specialized cells, often in an endocrine gland, and carried in the blood to regulate the action of particular cells or tissues.
2. A compound made by a plant that regulates its growth; also a synthetic substance with the same effect.
3. (hormones, plural) A person's sex hormones, thought of as influencing mood or behaviour.
4. (US slang) A sexually aggressive person.

Word family

• hormonal
• hormonally
• hormonelike
• antihormone
• neurohormone
• parathormone
• phytohormone

Related words

• serum
• endocrine

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com