/spɜɹm/, /spɜːm/
OriginFrom Middle English sperme, from Latin sperma, from Ancient Greek σπέρμα (spérma, “seed, semen”). Compare also Old French esperme, sparme.
- countableThe reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.
“In the Fall into the division of labor, Levi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm”
“Seeing the two little moving cells – the result of her egg and Luke's sperm – was incredible, and two very long weeks later the clinic confirmed I was pregnant.”
““Female may accept the sperms of male that can catapult but deplete the sperms of male that can be easily caught by her,” he said.”
- slang, uncountableSemen; the generative substance of male animals.
“Other Nations there are, that never have use of fire; Others, whose sperme is of a blacke colour.”
“Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac.”
- countable, uncountableSperm oil; whale oil from a sperm whale; spermaceti.
“Holding his candle so that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he made assurance of Lucy’s coffin.”
Formssperm(plural) · sperms(plural)