ovum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōvum (“egg”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Proto-Indo-European *ōwyo- (“egg”), also given as *ōyyo-,^[4] which de Vaan reconstructs as *h₂ōuiom.^[7] The OED derives it from the same Indo-European base as egg.^[2] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión), Old Norse egg and Old English ǣg.^{[4][8][9][10]} Etymonline considers the root perhaps a derivative of *awi- (“bird”),^[4] and Klein takes these words to mean literally "that which pertains to the bird".^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An egg, or a female reproductive cell: 1672, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,^[2][11] while Etymonline gives 1706 and Barnhart the same year, in Kersey's edition of Phillips' Dictionary.^[4][5] The Shorter Oxford also records, from the early 17th century, a Roman history sense: the egg-shaped objects used in the circus to count the laps of a race.^[12]

Semantic evolution

English took the word as a scientific term for the egg in a broad biological sense, the product of an ovary.^[2][4] It extended to plants from 1703, first for the ovule or young seed, a use that was obsolete by 1866.^[2][12] From 1900 it also named the egg cell of a plant.^[2] The architectural sense, an egg-shaped ornament, is recorded from 1728 to 1851.^[2][12] Loosely, the word also covers an immature egg cell or the first few cells formed from a fertilized one.^[12][11]

Timeline

• 1672 – the egg of a bird, fish or insect; the female reproductive cell.^[2][11] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1700–10.^[8]
• 1703 – in botany, the ovule or young seed (obsolete after 1866).^[2]
• 1728 – in architecture, an egg-shaped ornament (obsolete after 1851).^[2]
• 1900 – in botany, the female gamete or egg cell of a plant.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female gamete; an egg cell, especially a mature one ready for fertilization.^[13][11][2]
2. Loosely, an immature egg cell, or a fertilized one in its first divisions.^[11][12]
3. (botany) The egg cell of a plant, especially in the ovule.^[2][12]
4. (obsolete, 1703–1866) (botany) The ovule or young seed of a plant.^[2][12]
5. (obsolete, 1728–1851) (architecture) An egg-shaped ornament, often carved on an ovolo.^[2][12]

Word family

• ovo-

Related words

• oval
• ovary
• ovate
• oviparous
• ovoid
• ovulate
• egg
• ovule
• ovolo

Usage notes

The plural is ova.^[4][13][11] The OED notes the plurals ovas and ovae, which arise from taking ova as a singular.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins