seminary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sēminārium (“seed plot, plant nursery; figuratively, breeding ground”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun use of the neuter of sēminārius (“of seed”),^[2][7][8][9] from sēmen (“seed”),^[3][4][9] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to Proto-Indo-European *sē- (“to sow”).^[3][5] It is a doublet of seminar,^[4] which comes from the same Latin noun through German Seminar.^[10][2] Compare French séminaire, Spanish seminario and Italian seminario.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A seed plot, a piece of ground where plants are raised to be transplanted later: about 1440, in the Middle English translation of Palladius on husbandry.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories tells how the Council of Trent (1545–63), to raise the learning of the clergy, decreed training schools for the priesthood and called them seminaries, using the Latin noun metaphorically.^[10] After that decree English took up the sense "college for training priests", recorded from 1581;^{[2][4][3][10]} for a time seminary alone also meant a seminary priest (1581–1685).^[2] From 1585 the word was used of any school or college,^[2][4] and in the 19th century especially of a private academy for girls;^[10] Weekley notes this use lasted until about 1850,^[11] Barnhart and Etymonline until the 1930s.^[4][3] The figurative "place where something originates and develops" is recorded from 1592;^[2][3] Macaulay wrote in 1849 that the prisons were "seminaries of every crime and of every disease".^[10] The OED also records a place where animals are bred (1607–65)^[2] and the sense of seminar from 1889.^[2] The literal seed plot lasted until 1829 and is now obsolete,^[2][3] though Johnson (1755) still gave it first.^[12] In slang seminary was punningly used for a brothel, from 1654.^[13] An adjective seminary, meaning seminal, was used from 1592 to 1742.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – a seed plot.^[2][4]
• 1581 – a college for training Catholic priests.^[2][4]
• 1585 – a school or college in general.^[2][4]
• 1592 – figuratively, a place where something is bred or developed.^[2]
• 1607 – a place where animals are bred (obsolete by 1665).^[2]
• 1654 – slang, a brothel.^[13]
• 1829 – last record of the seed-plot sense.^[2]
• 1889 – a seminar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A college that trains priests, ministers or rabbis.^[14][8][2]
2. A place in which something originates and is developed; a breeding ground: The old port was a seminary of smugglers.^[8][2]
3. (US) A seminar.^[14][2]
4. Formerly, a school or academy, especially a private school for girls.^[10][2][4]
5. (obsolete, 1440–1829) A seed plot where plants are raised to be transplanted.^[2][8][12]

Word family

• seminarial
• seminarian
• seminarist

Related words

• seminar
• semen
• seminal

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 q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins