Semen comes from Latin 'semen' ('seed'), from the root of 'serere' ('to sow'), from Proto-Indo-European *seh1- ('to sow'). The historical chain includes Latin semen and Proto-Indo-European *seh1-. Older glosses in the chain include "semen", "seed", "serere", and "to sow", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, semen is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "the fluid containing sperm, secreted by the male reproductive organs". English derivatives include seminal; related forms include seminal, seminary, disseminate, and seminar. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.