"reproductive body in flowerless plants corresponding to the seeds of flowering ones," 1836, from Modern Latin spora, from Greek spora "a seed, a sowing, seed-time," related to sporas "scattered, dispersed," sporos "a sowing," and speirein "to sow, scatter," from PIE *spor-, variant of root *sper- (4) "to strew" (see sprout, v.).