Androgenic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or promoting the development of male characteristics through hormones like testosterone
2. promoting the development of male sexual characteristics and traits through the action of androgens or similar hormones
3. causing or stimulating the growth of distinctly masculine physical features and attributes through hormonal activity

Etymology: Androgenic is a modern scientific coinage, built in English from two Greek-derived pieces: "andro-", from Greek "anḗr" (genitive "andrós"), meaning "man" or "male", and "-gen", from Greek "-genḗs", meaning "producing" or "giving rise to". The first half of the chain is the stem of "androgen", a substance that produces male characteristics. That noun was formed in English from "andro-" and "-gen", and "androgenic" then adds the English adjective-forming suffix "-ic", which descends through Latin "-icus" and Old French "-ique". The sense is plain and literal: an androgenic substance is one that generates masculine traits. The word belongs to the vocabulary of endocrinology, the study of hormones, which took shape in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so its ancient Greek roots were assembled into a new technical term rather than used by the Greeks themselves.

Synonyms: masculinizing, male-promoting