testicular

Etymology

It is from Latin testiculus (“testicle”) with the suffix -ar,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or, in the Shorter Oxford's analysis, formed from English testicle + -ar.^[7] The Latin noun is a diminutive of testis (“testicle”).^[2][8][3] The OED compares French testiculaire.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, containing, or having the nature of a testicle: 1656, in Blount's Glossographia.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1650–60.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1769 the adjective was also used for things shaped like a testicle,^[2][4] part of a pattern of describing shapes in terms of the body that the Mapping Metaphor project dates to 1750–1799.^[9] Etymonline notes the related testiculate, of round or oval shape, from 1760, from Late Latin testiculatus (“shaped like a testicle; having testicles”).^[3] In medicine the phrase testicular feminization is recorded from 1953, for a condition in which genetically male people fail to respond to male sex hormones.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1656 – of or relating to a testicle or testicles.^[2]
• 1769 – shaped like a testicle.^[2]
• 1953 – testicular feminization.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or produced by the testes: testicular tissue.^[4][10][2]
2. Shaped like a testicle; testiculate.^[4][2]

Related words

• testosterone
• testicle
• testis
• testiculate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin