pollen
UK /ˈpɒlən/ · US /ˈpɑlən/ noun, verb
Forms pollens pollening pollened
- noun A fine, granular substance produced in flowers.
- noun (botany) Pollen grains (microspores) produced in the anthers of flowering plants.
- noun (obsolete) Fine powder in general, fine flour.
- verb (transitive, poetic) To cover with, or as if with, pollen.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin pollen (“fine flour”), used by Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century to describe the spores produced in the anthers of flowers.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Fine bran or flour. [Obs.] Bailey.
- noun The fecundating dustlike cells of the anthers of flowers. See Flower, and Illust. of Filament. Pollen grain (Bot.), a particle or call of pollen.
Etymology [L. pollen fine flour, fine dust; cf. Gr. 1. Fine bran or flour. [Obs.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pollen”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details