pollination

Etymology

It is formed from English pollen + -ation,^[2][3] or with the stem Latin pollin- (“fine flour, fine powder”) in place of the English noun.^[2][4][5] Merriam-Webster treats it as an international scientific word made of pollin- and -ation or -ization,^[4][6] while Dictionary.com and Klein take it from pollinate with -ion.^[7][8] Etymonline derives it from an older French pollination, formed in 1812,^[5] but the OED notes that the French word of 1812 meant something different, the giving off of pollen by plants, and compares the slightly earlier English pollinization (1871).^[2] The verb pollinate is first recorded in the same year, 1873, and Etymonline takes it as a back-formation from the noun or a formation from the Latin stem.^[2][5] The Latin noun meant mill dust or fine flour, and is related to polenta;^[5] the OED traces it to the same Indo-European base as pulvis (“dust”).^[2] Its botanical sense, the fertilizing dust of flowers, came into English in 1760, after Linnaeus.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The transfer of pollen from the male to the female organs of a seed plant: 1873, in a note by W. E. Hart in Nature (12 June).^[2][4] The 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated the word to 1875,^[9][10] and Etymonline to 1872.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its botanical meaning, and Etymonline notes that it was used especially of the fertilization of plants by insects.^[5] The OED's definition also covers the receiving of pollen by a stigma or ovule,^[2] and Merriam-Webster gives a broader sense, the fertilization of a flowering plant, and the state of having been pollinated.^[4][6] The 1989 edition of the OED records attributive and figurative uses as well.^[9] A form pollenation also exists,^[5][1] and Merriam-Webster lists the less common pollinization.^[4] In modern French the word was replaced by pollinisation.^[5]

Timeline

• 1871 – the variant pollinization.^[2]
• 1873 – the transfer of pollen to the female organs of a seed plant.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to 1872.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The transfer of pollen from the anther or stamen to the stigma or ovule of a plant, by wind, insects, birds or other agents: Bees carry out the pollination of the apple orchard.^[4][2][1]
2. More broadly, the fertilization of a flowering plant.^[4][6]
3. The state of having been pollinated.^[4][6]

Word family

• postpollination
• self-pollination
• cross-pollination

Related words

• pollen
• pollinate
• polenta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster