seminal

Forms

seminal m or f (masculine and feminine plural seminales)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts also write siminal.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sēminālis (“meant for sowing; prolific”), formed from sēmen (“seed; semen”) and -ālis.^[3][4][1] Corominas lists it among the learned words in the article on sembrar, with semen and seminario, and dates it to the middle of the 17th century;^[5] the CDH has it from the 1420s.^[2][6]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *sēmn̥, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ (“seed”).^[1] De Vaan puts it in the family of serō (“to sow”).^[7] The neighbouring languages have Catalan seminal, French séminal and Italian seminale.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enrique de Villena, in his translation and glosses of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442), speaks of incubi who caused a great progecçión seminal “seminal emission”.^[2] El Tostado (1437) speaks of materia seminal de varon “seminal matter of a man”: the first sense is “of semen”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 renders Latin seminalis as cosa de simiente “thing of seed”.^[6] The Autoridades (vol. 6, 1739) defines it as belonging to or serving as seed or semen, or having the power to produce another thing of its kind, and quotes vasos seminales “seminal vessels” from Pérez de Montalbán.^[9] Terreros calls it a word of medicine and anatomy and records hojas seminales “seed leaves”.^[10] The Academy defined it by semen in 1817 and added the sense of seeds in 1869.^[11][12] The current dictionary adds “fertile, fruitful”, also figuratively;^[3] Wiktionary gives the sense “highly influential”, as in English.^[1]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Villena's glosses on the Aeneid (in a copy of 1442).^[2]
• 1437 – El Tostado, Libro de las paradojas.^[2]
• 1468 – DICCA-XV's first record.^[6]
• 1576 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico: humor seminal.^[13]
• 1739 – the Autoridades, with vasos seminales;^[9][5] Corominas's first record.^[9][5]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “of seeds”.^[12]
• 1917 – Alemany records vesícula seminal.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to semen; seminal: líquido seminal.^[3][15]
2. (botany) Relating to seeds (semilla).^[3][1]
3. Fruitful, fertile (fecundo), also figuratively; highly influential: Su primer ensayo fue un texto seminal para toda una generación.^[3][1]

Related words

• semen
• semilla
• sembrar
• seminario
• Latin sēmen

Usage notes

Vesícula seminal “seminal vesicle” is the usual anatomical term.^[3][14] The medical dictionary notes that seminal and espermático are synonyms, the choice depending on the context.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. seminal
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. seminal
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 197
6. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. seminal
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 953
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 75
10. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 461
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 793
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 707
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. seminal
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1501
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. seminal
16. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. seminal