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ovulation

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Etymology and origin of the French word ovulation

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1844 Pouchet, Mémoire sur l'ovulation spontanée et périodique des Mammifères More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origin
Latin ovum

Pronunciation

  • /ɔ.vy.la.sjɔ̃/[1]

Forms

ovulation f (plural ovulations)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French ovule + -ation.[2][3][1] The Grand Robert allows that it may instead be formed on Latin ovula, the plural of the Latin word.[4] Ovule (1798) is a learned formation from Latin ovum (“egg”) with a diminutive suffix.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1844 in the title of Félix-Archimède Pouchet's paper on the spontaneous and periodic ovulation of mammals, in the Comptes rendus of the Académie des sciences.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its physiological sense: the release of the ripe ovule from the ovary after the follicle bursts, in animals and in women.[2][6] Dictionaries took it up in the 1850s: the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date it 1855, the GLLF 1858 (Nysten's medical dictionary).[4][6][7][8] By a change of suffix it gave the adjective ovulatoire (1969), from which come préovulatoire and postovulatoire in descriptions of the ovarian cycle.[3]

Timeline

  • 1844 – Pouchet uses it in the title of a paper to the Académie des sciences.[2][3]
  • 1855 – The date the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give.[4][6]
  • 1858 – Recorded in Nysten's medical dictionary.[7][8]
  • 1969 – The derived adjective ovulatoire appears.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (physiology) Ovulation: the release of a mature ovule from the ovary after the rupture of the follicle, in women and female animals.[2][6][9]

Word family

  • ovulatoire
  • anovulation

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Ovulation.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/ovulation. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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