scrotum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin scrōtum.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline thinks the Latin word is probably scortum (“a skin, hide”) with its sounds transposed, perhaps influenced by scrautum (“a leather quiver for arrows”);^[5] Weekley also asked whether it was the same word as scortum,^[7] and Hoad and Klein relate it to scrautum,^[8][9] which Dictionary.com takes it to be a variant of.^[10] Barnhart makes it cognate with Old English scrūd (“garment”), modern shroud, from Proto-Indo-European *skreut-,^[4] and Klein derives it from an Indo-European base meaning "to cut or break to pieces", the source of shred;^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise compares scrūpus (“sharp stone”) and refers to shred.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pouch of skin that holds the testicles: 1597 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[4][11] The OED's first quotation is from 1598, in A. M.'s translation of Guillemeau's Frenche Chirurgerye.^[2]

Timeline

• 1597 – the pouch of skin enclosing the testicles.^[4][11] The OED's first quotation is from 1598.^[2]
• early 19th century – the adjective scrotal.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The external pouch of skin that contains the testes in most mammals; its plural is scrota or scrotums.^{[3][11][12][6]}

Word family

• scrotal

Related words

• shroud
• shred

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins