Etymology

semelparous

S1E1M3E1L1P3A1R1O1U1S1

Today it means: Reproducing only once in a lifetime. Full definition →

Latin semel
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromsemel“once, a single time”
  2. English todaysemelparous

From Latin semel (“once, a single time”) + pariō (“give birth, produce, bring forth”). Coined by Lamont Cole in 1954.

Words from the same roots

Latinsemel all →

semelfactive

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.