sericulture

English
WOTD – 12 August 2019

Etymology
A silkworm and a cocoon
A woman in a silk factory in Hotan, Xinjiang, China, extracting silk fibres from silkworm cocoons

Possibly borrowed from French sériculture, a modification of French sériciculture (“sericulture”) (or directly from sériciculture),[1] from Late Latin sēricum (“Chinese goods, especially silk”) + French culture (“crop; culture”).[2] Sēricum is derived from Latin sēricus (“of or pertaining to the Seres or Chinese; (by extension) made of silk, silken”), from Sēres (“northern Chinese people”), from Ancient Greek Σῆρες (Sêres, “the Chinese people; the land of the Chinese, China”), plural of Σήρ (Sḗr, “(rare, usually in plural) Chinese person; silkworm”), possibly from Old Chinese 絲 (*[s]ə, “silk”).

Pronunciation

Noun

sericulture (usually uncountable, plural sericultures)

  1. (agriculture) The rearing of silkworms for the production of silk. [from mid 19th c.]
    Synonym: sericiculture

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. “sericulture, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2013.
  2. “sericulture” (US) / “sericulture” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

Further reading
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