late 14c., from Latin semen "seed of plants, animals, or men; race, inborn characteristic; posterity, progeny, offspring," figuratively "origin, essence, principle, cause," from PIE *si-so-, reduplication of root *se- (1) "to sow" (cognates: Latin serere "to sow," Old Prussian semen "seed," Lithuanian semens "seed of flax," Old Church Slavonic seme, Old High German samo "seed," German Same; see sow, v.).