gyno-

combining form

variants or before a vowel gyn-

: woman : female

gynocentric

: female reproductive organ : ovary

gynoecium

gynophore

Word History

Etymology

Greek gynḗ "woman" + -o- — more at queen entry 1

Note: In ancient Greek the compounding form of the word gynḗ "woman" was regularly gynaiko-, formed from the stem gynaik- and the combining vowel -o-. The only apparent exception in Liddell and Scott is the word gýnandros, attested earliest in a fragment attributed to Sophocles (see gynandrous), which contains the bare stem gyn-. Possibly following the example of gynandrous, gyno- came to be used in botany, as in the genus name Gynocardia (1819) and in gynoecium (see the etymology and note). More recently gyno- has become simply a variant of gyneco- in Greco-Latin compounds.