▪ I. sperm, n.
(spɜːm)
Forms: 4–7 sperme, 6 spearme, sparme, 7 sparm, 6– sperm.
[ad. OF. esperme (F. sperme), sparme, or L. sperma (hence also It. sperma, Sp. and Pg. esperma), a. Gr. σπέρµα, f. the stem of σπείρειν to sow.]
I. 1. a. The generative substance or seed of male animals (esp. of vertebrates).
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 19 In the feld of Damassene With goddes owene finger wroght was he And nat bigeten of mannes sperme [Harl. MS. sperma] unclene. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. xxix. (Tollem. MS.), The whale haþ gret plente of sperme, and after þat he gendreþ with þe female, superfluite þerof fleteþ aboue þe water. a 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 14 Som-tyme þe sperme goþ oute by þe hole of þe ȝerde infistulate. 1526 Grete Herball xxviii. (1529) B v b, Ambre is hote and drye... Some say that it is the sparme of a whale. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 67, I sau hemp, that coagulis the flux of the sparme. 1605 Timme Quersit. i. xvi. 85 We see, of bread and wine, blood to be made; of blood, sperm or seed. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 330 And thus may it also be in the generation and sperm of Negroes. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Poultry, The Cock..rarifies the Egg, and renders it fit to produce its Species by the Sperm or Tread he infuses into it. 1783 Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies V. 361 It hath since been imagined, that pearls must be the eggs or the sperm of the fish inclosed in the shell. 1822–7 Good Stud. Med. (1829) V. 6 The male shortly afterwards passes over the spawn or hard roe, and discharges upon it his sperm, which we call soft roe or milt. 1878 F. J. Bell Gegenbaur's Elem. Comp. Anat. 53 Receptacles which serve for the collection of the sperm. |
b. A spermatozoon.
| 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Oct. 964 Gametes (eggs and sperms). 1905 G. A. Reid Princ. Heredity xii. 162 If these same sperms reside for a longer time [etc.]. |
† 2. a. The eggs of insects.
Obs.| 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 44 The red peckled butter-flye doth euer put them [i.e. caterpillars], being her sparm, among the tender spraies for better feeding. 1747 W. Gould Eng. Ants 34 A just Description of the Sperm or Eggs (which is entirely answerable to what the Queen lays). |
† b. Offspring, brood (of persons).
Obs. rare.
| 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 237 Let not those wretched Fathers thinke they shall impoverish the Church.., though they keep back their sordid sperm begotten in the lustinesse of their avarice. |
3. transf. The generative matter or source from which anything is formed or takes its origin:
a. Of plants.
| 1610 J. Davies (Heref.) Commend. Poems, Vaughan Wks. (Grosart) II. 3/2 His royall Trench (that..holds the Sperme of Herbage by a Spring). 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. (1625) 99 The worme..deuouring vp the substance or sperm, is the cause that the corne cannot grow. 1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. 25 I'll call't form bestiall, It makes a beast added to plantall sperm. |
b. Of other material things.
| 1651 French Distill. v. 108 Water is both the Sperme, and the Menstruum of the world. 1671 J. Webster Metallogr. iv. 77 The Sperm of Metals is not different from the sperm of other things, to wit, an humid vapour. 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. i. 3 The Fifth [ship had for its device] a famous Kan made of Sperm of Emerald. 1845 Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 120 The primal sperm and matter of the world. |
c. Of qualities, conditions, etc.
| 1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xxvi. 91 Infects her mind With the black Sperme of Contradiction. 1659 C. Noble Inexpediency Exped. 4 The Remedy that is prescribed is the very Seed and Sperm..and Vivary of that difference. 1820 Shelley Ode Liberty xv, 'Tis the sperm Of what makes life foul, cankerous, and abhorred. |
4. a. attrib., as
sperm-bag,
sperm-ball,
sperm-cell,
sperm-germ, etc.;
sperm bank = semen bank s.v. semen 2; hence
sperm banking;
sperm count, the number of spermatozoa in the ejaculate or in one millilitre of it;
sperm morula, a ball of spermatozoa.
| 1849 Phil. Trans. CXXXIX. i. 347 The spermatozoa are distinctly seen in the *sperm-bag. |
| 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 424/2 Each cell..produces a large number of spermatozoa, which occur in spherical clusters or *sperm-balls. |
| 1963 B. Russell Let. 10 Mar. in Autobiogr. (1969) III. iv. 173 If a *sperm-bank, such as you envisage, had existed during the régime of Hitler, Hitler would have been the sire of all babies born in his time in Germany. 1977 M. Sokolinsky tr. Merle's Virility Factor vi. 130 Suppose you've had a vasectomy done... The men kept the sperm..in a sperm bank, in case their wives wanted to be fertilized. |
| 1972 Science 7 Apr. 32 Biologist Mark Lappé..is disturbed that commercial outfits are the first to introduce large-scale *sperm banking. |
| 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 148 In the lower tribes, both of Plants and Animals, we find that ‘*sperm-cells’ and ‘germ-cells’ are developed in the midst of the ordinary tissues of the body. 1881 Mivart Cat 318 The male pro⁓nucleus is a spermatozoon, which is a part of the nucleus of the original sperm-cell. |
| 1868 Watts Dict. Chem. V. 397 With *sperm-corpuscles, mucus-corpuscles, and epithelium-scales. |
| 1941 Endocrinology XXVIII. 783 For approximately 18 days after the fever, the human total *sperm counts remain at a relatively normal level. 1979 Daily Tel. 29 Nov. 19/1 Her twin was told she was unlikely to have children because of her husband's low sperm count. |
| 1859 Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. [138] Two different organised bodies, which are respectively formed from two different cells; the ovigerm and the *spermgerm. |
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability (1903) 56 Stall-feeding makes *sperm-mills of the cattle. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *Sperm morula. 1921 Nature 7 July 586/1 The occurrence of developing sperm-morulæ in microscopic sections of..oysters has..been already observed. 1936 Mem. Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique (2nd Ser.) III. 1003 Since females on English [oyster] beds nearly always carry some sperm morulae amongst the eggs, self⁓fertilisation will nearly always be possible. |
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlii. 146 The *Sperm-reservoir (Spermatheca) is an organ connecting the vagina with the oviduct. |
| 1883 Lankester in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 682/2 In other Mollusca..this formation of ‘*sperm ropes’ is known. |
| 1859 Huxley Oceanic Hydrozoa 64 The smaller contained a *sperm-sac, with incompletely developed spermatozoa. |
| 1841 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. 280 Two long auxiliary vessels.., that have been named *sperm-vessels, gluten-vessels, and gum-vessels by different authors. |
b. Comb., as
sperm-forming,
sperm-like,
sperm-producing,
sperm-secreting adjs.| 1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 414/1 The principal forms of the sperm-secreting organs. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 32 Infect them, by either growing parasitically.., or (sperm-like) imparting to them specific properties. 1878 F. J. Bell Gegenbaur's Elem. Comp. Anat. 53 The relation of the egg-forming and sperm-forming organs to one another varies greatly. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. ii. 52 Their walls are composed of germ-cells (sperm-producing cells). |
II. (Short for
sperm whale or
spermaceti.)
5. a. sperm oil, an oil found together with spermaceti in the head of various species of whales.
| 1839 T. Beale Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale 149 There was still a gradual increase in the importation of sperm oil. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. vi. §1. 358 The principal drying oils are those of linseed, walnut, hemp,..and sperm oil. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 202 Crude and refined Sperm oil, used for illuminating,..and in the manufacture of spermaceti. |
| attrib. 1849 Cupples Green Hand ii. (1856) 18 Trimming up the sperm-oil lights. |
b. sperm candle, a spermaceti candle.
| 1775 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1887) XIII. 202 He heard sperm candles were 3s. 1839 C. F. Briggs Adventures Harry Franco II. 143 Mrs. Brown's house was brilliantly illuminated with a sperm candle in each side light. 1856 Orr's Circ. Sci., Pract. Chem. 458, 15 sperm candles will give the light of 16.5 stearic. 1890 Daily News 29 Oct. 3/5 The only clean and tidy candles..were wax candles and sperm candles. |
6. a. A sperm whale. Also
collect. and attrib.| 1840 F. D. Bennett Narr. Whaling Voy. II. 185 The commencement of the Sperm Fishery by England. 1854 Chamb. Jrnl. 28 Jan. 53/2 See, again! there is a sperm of the largest size, which has just leaped. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. xviii. 772 The parts of the ocean..in which the sperm are found. 1895 Pall Mall G. 16 Dec. 2/1 He killed as many as five sperms in a single day with one harpoon. |
b. sperm-bird (see
quot.).
| 1840 F. D. Bennett Narr. Whaling Voy. I. 10 Many ocean birds of the high south latitudes were now visible.., as nellies (Procellaria gigantea); blue-petrels, or sperm-birds (Prion pachyptila), [etc.]. |
7. Sperm candles or oil.
| 1856 Orr's Circ. Sci., Pract. Chem. 458 If there be any difference, the light of sperm is a little greater, and that of stearic acid a little whiter. 1890 Clark Russell Ocean Trag. I. iv. 68 The soft..radiance diffused by the burning sperm. |
▪ II. † sperm, v. Obs.—1 [f. prec.] intr. To spawn.
| a 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 41 Þei grew to þe liknes of þe womb of a..creuyse or lopster when he spermeþ or frieþ. |