sperm (English)

Where does "sperm" come from?

The word 'sperm' traces its origins back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European root *sper-, meaning 'to scatter' or 'strew.' It evolved through Ancient Greek as σπέρμα ('seed'), passed into Latin, and eventually entered English via Middle English. This journey illustrates how a term describing the act of scattering seeds transformed over millennia to specifically denote biological reproductive cells.

Full etymology tree

• sperm (English), 'The reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.'
  • inherited sperme (Middle English)
    • borrowed sperma (Latin), 'seed, semen, sperm'
      • borrowed σπέρμα (spérma) (Ancient Greek), 'seed'
        • inherited *spérmə (Proto-Hellenic)
          • inherited *spérmn̥ (Proto-Indo-European)

Direct ancestors

• sperma (Latin)
• σπέρμα (Ancient Greek)

Updated July 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris