Header image of wall of bricks Open menu Close menu

-gonium

Organs of reproduction.

Greek gonos, race.

Examples are archegonium (Greek arkhegonos, founder of a race), the female reproductive organ in ferns and mosses; oogonium (Greek ōion, egg), either the female sex cells of certain algae and fungi, or the immature female reproductive cells in animals; and spermatogonium, a cell produced in the early stages of formation of spermatozoa. An unrelated word is that for the shrubby plant called the pelargonium, whose name comes from the Greek pelargos, a stork, plus the final part of geranium.

Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Your comments are very welcome.