1682: Hymen and hymen Jul 23, 2019

The Greek deity of marriage is referred to as Ὑμήν ('hymen') but this is not the express origin the homophone denoting female anatomy. For one thing, the deity was conceptualized as a man, but more importantly the physiological term comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *syu-men- with *syu- meaning 'sew' or 'bring together ('sew' coming from the same root). To be clear, the name of the Greek mythical is estimated to generally come from the same derivation but in the sense of bringing two people together through a wedding itself.