means The fine, powdery grains produced by flowering plants and conifers that carry the male genetic material needed to fertilize other plants.

from Straight from Latin 'pollen,' meaning fine flour or dust — the same word a Roman might use for the powdery stuff that drifted off a millstone. It's a cousin of 'pulvis' (dust, the root of 'powder') and 'pollere' isn't related despite the resemblance. The botanical sense, narrowing 'pollen' from any fine powder down to the specific golden dust of plants, was pinned down by 18th-century naturalists who needed a word for what they saw bees hauling around.