Soma was borrowed from Ancient Greek sôma ('body'), of uncertain further origin. Used in biology to denote the body of an organism apart from its reproductive cells. The historical chain includes Ancient Greek sôma. The quoted older sense, "body," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for soma. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word soma carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "the body of an organism as distinct from its germ cells or psyche". English derivatives include somatic; related English forms include somatic. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.