Now rare. Pl. spermata. [a. L. sperma or Gr. σπέρμα: see SPERM sb.] Sperm; seed.
14[?]. [see SPERM sb.1].
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, M iij. The same water is good and multyplyeth the sperma.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 3 b/2. The patient can nether retayne his vrine, Sperma, or Stole.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, 344. Whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement therof, they cannot well determine.
1668. Phil. Trans., III. 790. Here have been Sperma-Ceti-Whales driven upon the shore, which Sperma (as they call it) lies all over the Body of those Whales.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Sperm or Sperma, the Seed whereof an Animal is form’d.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxvii. 350. By the mixture and mutual neutralization or solution of different spermata.
1886. Lond. Q. Rev., Oct., 129. Basilides is said to have spoken of a ‘sperma’ or seed-mass, from which all things have been produced.
