Pollinate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈpɒlɪneɪt/

Definitions

1. The act of transferring pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part to assist in the reproductive process of plants
2. It involves moving pollen from anther to stigma within flowers, aiding in plant species reproduction and seed development
3. The process involves the transfer of pollen between floral structures, facilitating the fertilization of plants and the formation of seeds

Etymology: Pollen itself comes from Latin, where "pollen" meant fine flour, the powder ground from wheat, not the dust of flowers. Its use for plant dust came later, and "pollinate" grew from that scientific sense. The verb is built from the oblique stem "pollin-", the form the Latin noun takes in its other cases, joined to the verb-forming suffix "-ate" that English uses for words like "activate" and "hyphenate." What it does show is that the verb sits on a noun that was already a loanword: English took "pollen" from Latin, then turned its stem into a working verb meaning to carry that powder from one flower's male part to another's female part.

Synonyms: fertilize, inseminate