spore

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin spora,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Ancient Greek σπορά (sporá, “a sowing, seed”),^[2][3][6][8] related to σπόρος (spóros, “a sowing, seed”)^[6][5] and, by a change of vowel grade, to σπείρειν (speírein, “to sow, scatter”).^[6] Etymonline, following Watkins, traces it to Proto-Indo-European *spor-, a variant of *sper- (“to spread, sow”).^[3][9] The same Latin word gave French spore and Italian spora.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the tiny reproductive bodies of flowerless plants: 1836, in M. J. Berkeley's contribution to J. E. Smith's English Flora.^[2][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a botanical term, for what in flowerless plants corresponds to the seed of flowering ones.^[3][6] It soon spread to biology in general: a verb, "to produce spores", is recorded from 1866,^[5] while from 1876 the noun also meant a very minute germ or organism, in zoology and biology.^[2][7] Modern dictionaries also apply it to the reproductive bodies of fungi and some protozoans,^[7][10] and to the resistant resting form of bacteria in adverse conditions.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1836 – a reproductive body of flowerless plants.^[2][3][4][5]
• 1866 – verb, to produce spores.^[5]
• 1876 – a very minute germ or organism.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tiny, usually single-celled reproductive body produced by fungi, various plants and some protozoans, which can grow into a new individual: The mushroom released its spores.^[10][5][7]
2. The resistant resting form of a bacterium in adverse conditions.^[7][5][10]
3. A germ or seed.^[10][7][2]

Verb

1. To produce or carry spores, or to reproduce by them.^[10][5]

Word family

• sporaceous
• spored
• sporal
• sporoid
• azygospore
• parthenospore
• acrospore
• aeciospore

Related words

• sparse
• sperm
• sporadic
• diaspora
• sporangium
• spray
• sprout

Usage notes

Regional English has other, unrelated uses of the spelling: in Lancashire and East Anglian dialect a spore was a prop or support, and in East Anglia and Cornwall a spur, from Old English spora.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)