Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Gymnosperm
/ˈdʒɪmnəspɜrm/noun
A seed plant whose ovules are borne exposed, not enclosed in an ovary.
The Greek roots
γυμνός
gymnós
naked, bare
σπέρμα
spérma
seed
Literally: “naked seed”
The story of the word
Conifers, cycads and the ginkgo carry their ovules on open scales, so the seed sits uncovered on the cone. The γυμνός is the same one behind gymnasium, the place where Greek men trained naked. The pair gymnosperm and angiosperm settled into their present botanical sense in the nineteenth century, once the difference in the ovary was understood.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
angiospermgymnasiumgymnasticssperm
In a sentence
Every tree on the ridge was a gymnosperm, mostly pine and juniper.