Etymologically
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horticulture

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhɔː.tɪˌkʌl.tʃə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /ˈhɔɹ.tɪˌkʌl.t͡ʃɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English horti- + culture after agriculture,[2][3][4][5][6] from Latin hortus (“garden”),[3][4][7][8] perhaps as a Latin type New Latin *horticultūra (“cultivation of a garden”), from hortus and cultūra (“cultivation”).[2][9] Merriam-Webster analyses it as hortus with an English connecting -i- and culture.[10] The Latin noun originally meant an enclosed place;[9] it is cognate with Ancient Greek χόρτος (khórtos, “enclosed place, farmyard”) and Irish gort (“crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰortos,[4][9] from the root *gher- (“to grasp, enclose”),[3][11][4] the source also of English yard.[12][10] French horticulture was admitted by the Académie française in 1835.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cultivation of a garden; the art or science of managing gardens: 1678, in the new edition of Edward Phillips's dictionary The New World of Words.[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning, the growing of flowers, fruit and vegetables.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as the art of cultivating gardens; he took it from the Latin words for garden and cultivation.[13] Modern dictionaries extend it to orchards and nurseries, and to growing ornamental plants on any scale.[10] Derivatives followed: horticulturist is recorded from 1818[4] and horticultural from the late 18th century.[5] Etymonline notes that Dorothy Parker famously punned on the word.[3]

Timeline

  • 1678 – the cultivation of a garden; the art of gardening.[2][4][10]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as the art of cultivating gardens.[13]
  • late 18th century – the adjective horticultural.[5]
  • 1818 – horticulturist.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The art or science of growing fruit, vegetables, flowers or ornamental plants: He studied horticulture before opening a nursery.[10][6][2]
  2. The cultivation of a garden, orchard or nursery.[10][2]

Word family

  • horticultural
  • horticulturally
  • horticulturist

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.