Also 5 testicule. [ad. L. testiculus, dim. f. testis TESTIS2: see -CULE. Cf. F. testicule, Sp., Pg. testiculo, It. testicolo.] Each of the two ellipsoid glandular bodies, constituting the sperm-secreting organs in male mammals, and usually enclosed in a scrotum; = TESTIS2 1 a.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, 14. His testicules war bolned out of mesure.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 21 b/1. This swellinge … of the testicles.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. iv. 112. That a Bever to escape the Hunter, bites off his testicles or stones, is a tenent very ancient.
1783. Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, I. 307. It is very certain, and has often been observed that the Hottentot men have but one testicle.
1822. T. Taylor, Apuleius, VII. 159. By cutting off his testicles, he would not, by any means, be able to indulge in venery.
1876. Bristowe, The. & Pract. Med. (1878), 171. (Small-pox) Inflammation of the ovary or testicle is occasionally observed.
b. Rarely applied to the corresponding organs in non-mammals: see TESTIS2 1 b.
[1634. R. H., Salerne’s Regiment, 36. Testicles or Stones, and especially stones of fatte Cockes … be very good and great nourishers.]
1713. Warder, True Amazons, 10. [The Drone has] a large pair of Testicles, as big as great Pins Heads.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 282. Both the ovary and testicle are evidently temporary organs.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., vii. 389. The testicle is an elongated sac which lies on the ventral aspect of the intestine.
† c. transf. The ovary in females. Obs.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, I. (1634), 69. The right stone or testicle in a Woman.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., X. 364. The Womb with its Ligaments and the Testicles may hurt the Loins.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 66. Membranes … capable of a prodigious extension, as we see in the Hydatides of the female Testicles or Ovaries.
† d. pl. An old name for an orchid, from the form of the tubers: in quot. app. applied to Spiranthes autumnalis. Obs.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. cii. 169. The first is called … in English sweete smelling Testicles or Stones.
e. attrib. and Comb.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 157. In the European species of Serranus a testicle-like body is attached to the lower part of the ovary.
1899. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., ix. (ed. 4), 424. Finely granular testicle-cells.
