ovulation

Etymology

It is formed from English ovulum + -ation,^[2][3][4] ovulum being New Latin ōvulum (“small egg”), a diminutive of Latin ōvum (“egg”).^[3][2] The OED compares French ovulation, recorded from 1844.^[2] The verb ovulate is a back-formation from it.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The discharge of an ovum from the ovary: 1848, in Charles D. Meigs's Females and their Diseases.^[2][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline and Barnhart give the first sense as the formation or production of ova or ovules as well as their discharge from the ovary.^[3][4] The OED now defines it chiefly as the release of an egg from the ovary in a female mammal, with a rare use for the laying of eggs by oviparous animals.^[2][6] The verb ovulate followed in 1851 according to the OED, in 1888 according to Etymonline and Barnhart.^[2][3][4]

Timeline

• 1848 – the formation or discharge of ova from the ovary.^[2][3][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The release of a mature egg (ovum) from the ovary, or an instance of it: Some fertility drugs are given to trigger ovulation.^[5][2][6]
2. (rare) The production or laying of eggs by an oviparous animal.^[2][6]

Word family

• ovulate
• anovulation
• superovulation

Related words

• ovule
• ovum
• ovary

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. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press