ovary

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin ōvārium,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from Latin ōvum (“egg”) and the suffix -ārium.^[3][6][7] The modern Latin word is used by Fabricius in “De Formatione Ovi et Pulli” (1621);^[3] in the 13th century Medieval Latin ōvāria was used for the ovary of a bird, and classical ōvārius meant an egg-keeper.^[3][8][7] The OED compares French ovaire, recorded in zoology in 1672 and in botany in 1718.^[3] The Latin noun comes from Proto-Indo-European *ōwyo- (“egg”), which may be derived from *awi- (“bird”),^[8][2] and Ayto traces it to the same Indo-European base as English egg.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The female organ in which eggs are produced: 1653, in William Harvey's Anatomical Exercitations.^[3][6] Barnhart dates the word to 1658,^[7][10] and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English in anatomy, for the organ in humans and other animals, and was extended to botany in 1731, for the part of a flower that holds the ovules, in Philip Miller's Gardeners Dictionary;^[3] Barnhart dates the botanical sense to 1744.^[7] The Latin form ovarium was also used in English from 1668, in both senses.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the ovary as the part of the body in which impregnation is performed, quoting Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors.^[11] Robert Hooke used the word figuratively in his Micrographia (1665), a rare use.^[3]

Timeline

• 1653 – the female organ of reproduction, in which eggs are produced.^[3][6]
• 1665 – in extended or figurative use, in Hooke.^[3]
• 1731 – in botany, the base of the pistil, which holds the ovules.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of the two female reproductive organs that produce eggs and, in vertebrates, sex hormones such as oestrogen.^[5][6][3]
2. The corresponding organ in other animals, vertebrate and invertebrate.^[5][3]
3. (botany) The hollow lower part of a pistil or carpel, which contains the ovules and develops into the fruit.^[5][3][12]

Word family

• ovarian
• ovariole
• ovariectomy
• ovaritis
• polycystic ovary syndrome

Related words

• ovum
• egg
• oval
• ovate
• ovulate

Usage notes

A rare adjective ovary, relating to an ovation, formed from Latin ovō (“to celebrate an ovation”), was used by Sir Thomas Browne before 1682; it has a separate source.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press