Androgen

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈændrəd͡ʒən/

Definitions

1. A type of hormone mainly generated in the testes that is responsible for the development and upkeep of male physical traits and also aids in muscle development
2. This hormone, predominantly produced by the testes, plays a key role in establishing male sexual characteristics and enhancing muscle mass
3. A hormone secreted primarily by the testes that stimulates the development of male characteristics and supports muscle growth

Etymology: Androgen is a technical coinage built from two Greek elements, and its parts are the clearest part of the story. The first, "andro-", comes from Ancient Greek "anḗr" (genitive "andrós"), meaning "man" as opposed to a woman or a boy. The second, "-gen", comes from Greek "génos" and the verb-derived suffix "-genḗs", meaning "producing" or "giving rise to." Put together, the word literally means something like "man-producing," which is an apt description of a substance that drives male development. The "-gen" suffix does a lot of work in modern science. It appears in words for substances or agents that generate or produce something, and chemists and physiologists used it freely in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to name new discoveries. The ancient Greeks had no word for a hormone, so the term reflects a modern attempt to name a substance using classical building blocks.

Synonyms: male hormone, testosterone, steroid, androgenic hormone

Antonyms: estrogen, female hormone, progesterone