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Origin and history of testosterone

testosterone(n.)

male sex hormone, 1935, from German Testosteron (1935), coined from a presumed combining form of Latin testis "testicle" (see testis) + first syllable of sterol + chemical ending -one.

Entries linking to testosterone

"white, crystalline substance discovered in gallstones," 1913, abstracted from cholesterol.

"a testicle," 1704, from Latin testis (plural testes) "testicle," a word usually regarded as a special application of testis "witness" (see testament) on the notion of what "bears witness to male virility" [Barnhart]. Stories that trace the Latin word to some supposed swearing-in ceremony are groundless modern inventions.

Compare Greek parastatai "testicles," from parastates "one that stands by;" and French slang témoins, literally "witnesses." But Buck thinks Greek parastatai "testicles" has been wrongly associated with the legal sense of parastatēs "supporter, defender" and suggests instead parastatai in the sense of twin "supporting pillars, props of a mast," etc. Or it might be a euphemistic use of the word in the sense "comrades." OED (1989), meanwhile, points to Walde's suggestion of a connection between testis and testa "pot, shell, etc." (see tete).

chemical suffix, from Greek -one, female patronymic (as in anemone, "daughter of the wind," from anemos); in chemical use denoting a "weaker" derivative. Its use in forming acetone (1830s) gave rise to the specialized chemical sense.

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