ovum

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin ōvum (“egg”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.vəm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊ.vəm/

Noun

ovum (plural ova)

1. (cytology) The female gamete in animals; the egg cell.

Synonyms

• megagamete

Hypernyms

• gamete

Coordinate terms

• spermatozoon

Related terms

Related terms

• oval
• Ovaltine
• ovary

• ovate
• oviparous
• ovoid

• ovo-lacto-vegetarian
• ovulate

Translations

gamete

• Armenian: ձվաբջիջ (hy) (jvabǰiǰ)
• Catalan: òvul
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卵子 (zh) (luǎnzǐ)

• Czech: vajíčko (cs) n
• Danish: ægcelle
• Dutch: eicel (nl)
• Finnish: munasolu (fi)
• French: ovule (fr) m
• German: Eizelle (de) f, Ovum n
• Hebrew: ביצית‎ (he) f (beitsit)
• Hungarian: pete (hu)
• Icelandic: eggfruma f, egg (is) n
• Irish: ubhán m
• Italian: ovulo (it)
• Japanese: 卵 (ja) (らん, ran), 卵子 (ja) (らんし, ranshi)

• Korean: 난자 (ko) (nanja) (卵子 (ko))
• Malay:

  Jawi: اوۏوم‎

  Rumi: ovum

• Marathi: अंड (aṇḍ), अंडकोश (aṇḍkoś)
• Portuguese: óvulo (pt)
• Romanian: ovul (ro)
• Russian: яйцекле́тка (ru) f (jajceklétka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: јајашце n

  Roman: jajašce (sh) n

• Spanish: óvulo (es) m
• Swedish: äggcell (sv) c
• Tagalog: itlog (tl)
• Turkish: yumurta (tr), yumurta hücresi
• Vietnamese: trứng (vi)

See also

• oocyte

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Japanese

Romanization

ovum

1. Rōmaji transcription of おゔむ
2. Rōmaji transcription of オヴム

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Latin

ōva gallīnārum (hens' eggs).

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ōwom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), likely a derivative of *h₂éwis (“bird”) (whence also Latin avis (“bird”)). Cognates include Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión), Old Church Slavonic аицє (aice), Persian خایه (ḵẖāya), Old Norse egg, Norwegian egg, Icelandic egg, Faroese egg, Old Norse egg, English egg (modern), ey (obsolete), Old English ǣġ.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoː.wum/, [ˈoː.wũ]

Noun

ōvum n (genitive ōvī); second declension

1. egg

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	ōvum	ōva
genitive	ōvī	ōvōrum
dative	ōvō	ōvīs
accusative	ōvum	ōva
ablative	ōvō	ōvīs
vocative	ōvum	ōva

Derived terms

• ōvātus
• ōvicō
• ōviparus

Descendants

• Aragonese: güego
• Dalmatian: juf
• English ovum
• Esperanto: ovo
  • Ido: ovo
• Franco-Provençal: uef
• Interlingua: ovo
• Italian: uovo
• Lombard: öv
• Mozarabic óbgo
• Old French: oef, of
  • Middle French: œuf
    • French: œuf
  • Norman: oeu
  • Picard: uë
  • Walloon: oû

• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: güevu
  • Leonese: guevu
  • Mirandese: uobo
• Old Portuguese: ovo
  • Galician: ovo
  • Portuguese: ovo, ova
• Old Provençal:
  • Catalan: ou
  • Occitan: ueu, uòu
• Old Spanish: hueuo, ueuo
  • Ladino: guevo
  • Spanish: huevo, hueva
    • Papiamentu: webu

• Proto-Romanian:
  • Aromanian: ou
  • Romanian: ou
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: ûf, ûv
  • Romansch: ov, öv, iev
• Sardinian: obu
  • Campidanese: ou
• Sicilian: uòvu, ou, ovu
• Venetian: óvo

References

• ovum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ovum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• du Cange, Charles (1883), “ovum”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
• “ovum” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) from beginning to end: ab ovo usque ad mala (proverb.)
    
• ovum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

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Malay

Etymology

Borrowing from English ovum, from Latin ōvum, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm, likely a derivative of *h₂éwis.

Alternative forms

• اوۏوم

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ovom]
• Rhymes: -vom, -om

Noun

ovum (Jawi spelling اوۏوم, plural ovum-ovum)

1. (cytology) ovum (gamete)