The word is a Latinism, derived from the Greek word for ‘scrotum’, ὄσχεον .

The attestation in A-N Med i 79.xxxi, ‘qui reteint les entrailes en un liu que est apelé osceum’ (literally, the abdominal wall ‘which keeps the intestines in a place called the scrotum’), mistranslates the Latin source ‘retinet intestina, ne cadant in osceum’ (i.e. ‘[it] keeps the intestines in place, so that they do not drop into the scrotum’).