means The male reproductive cell, which carries half the genetic material needed to fertilize an egg.

from From the Greek 'sperma,' meaning 'seed,' from 'speirein,' 'to sow' — the same agricultural image that gives us 'spore' and lurks inside 'diaspora,' a scattering of seed across the earth. The ancients literally pictured reproduction as planting: the body as field, the seed as sown future. The word reached English through Latin 'sperma' and Old French in the late Middle Ages.