germn.
/dʒəːm/, U.S. /dʒərm/ 1. An initial stage or state from which something may develop; a source, a beginning. Also: a small constituent or quantity. Now usually with of (what may develop).
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [noun] > source or primitive or original form
germc1550
stocka1625
seediness1662
primordium1704
germen1794
root form1832
rootstock1862
c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) 1 The precius germe of ȝour nobilite..bringis furtht..hoilsum frute of honour.
1659 tr. R. Fludd Mosaicall Philos. ii. i. ii. 137 Then Pimander said, I am that light, the mentall spirit, that is thy God, of a greater antiquity then is the humid nature, which did shine out of the dark shaddow: but the brightsome germe of the mentall spirit is the Son of God.
1707 Hist. Wks. Learned Aug. 478 The hope of being able to extract true Germ of Gold from it [sc. Antimony], engag'd them to multiply Experiments almost without end upon it.
1757 Monthly Rev. Feb. 142 The eulogies bestowed on these two original geniuses, fired others with Emulation; and this soon unfolded the germ of every art and science.
1759 tr. Helvétius De L'Esprit i. ii. 9 The same passions..which are the germ of an infinity of errors, are also the sources of our knowledge.
1762 Monthly Rev. App. 507 He conceives this seat or receptacle of the soul to comprehend the germ of that incorruptible body, with which, according to the scriptures, we shall be cloathed at the general resurrection.
1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Spain & Portugal lxxi Thereby to eradicate every germe of liberty.
1786 T. Jefferson Writings (1859) I. 605 The only germ of dissension, which shows itself at present, is in the quarter of Turkey.
1799 A. Plumptre tr. A. von Kotzebue Virgin of Sun i. i. 12 Oh ye gods! tis thus by annihilating the former man, that you chastise this unworthy love which blights every noble germ [Ger. Keim] implanted in the heart!
1814 tr. A.-L.-G. de Staël Germany (new ed.) II. iii. x. 201 And who knows whether there is not a germ of truth hidden under every apologue, under every mode of belief, which has been stigmatized with the name of madness?
1846 T. Wright Ess. Middle Ages II. xi. 38 Every country has possessed, in its own primeval literature, the first germ of romance.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul II. ix. xxxv. 129 His keen eye marked the germs of coming danger.
1923 D. A. Mackenzie Myths China & Japan i. 9 There is therefore a germ of historical truth in the account given by Plutarch of the missionary efforts of Osiris.
1960 Jrnl. Bible & Relig. 28 273/2 It is full of flashes, of germs of ideas or distillations of them, packed with apt quotations.
2010 G. Fraser-Sampson Private Equity as Asset Class (ed. 2) xii. 184 There is actually a germ of validity in such criticism.
2.
a. The emerging growth (in early use esp. the radicle) of a germinating seedling; the seedling itself; a shoot emerging from a bulb, tuber, bud, or rootstock. In later use also: the emerging growth of a germinating fungal spore. Cf. germen n. 2. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxiv. 217 Can these germes choose but pierce the earth in small stringes, as they are able to make their way?
1659 T. St. Serfe tr. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac Σεληναρχια sig. B6v The Germ or sprout of the Onyon, is the little Sun of that small World.
1673 O. Walker Of Educ. (ed. 2) i. xi. 134 An onion having its germe covered with so many scales, representeth a man that conceals his intention under many pretences.
1717 J. Chamberlayne tr. Lives French, Ital. & German Philosophers 286 All those Germes are nothing but the Roots of the growing Plant, and they sprang out of the Centre of the pointed part of the Acorn.
1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 521 Then rise the tender germes, upstarting quick And spreading wide their spongy lobes.
1794 Trans. Linn. Soc. 2 95 Many of the small seeds..had put on a greenish colour, and some were pushing out their little germ, like a small protuberance.
1810 W. Davies Gen. View Agric. N. Wales 233 A belt [of trees]..to shelter the germs which would spring from the stocks.
1842 W. Withers Acacia Tree 28 Three seeds should be placed in holes made with the finger, taking great care not to break off the sprouting germs.
1889 Calif. Florist & Gardener Mar. 59/2 Do not let the ground get dry or hard, or the tiny germs that have started may be destroyed.
1903 Canad. Horticulturist 26 477/2 The growth germs of the tubers had lost their vitality, a very large percentage not growing at all.
1948 D. LePan Wounded Prince 39 They are rows of jostling seeds, Planted too close, unlikely to come to maturity. Some will shoot up (germs are brave things and hard to kill).
b. The embryo plant within a seed, (in later use) esp. that of a cereal grain. Also (as a mass noun): the component of grain or flour consisting of the embryos.wheat germ: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > seed > [noun] > parts of > embryo or radicle
embryon1640
germen1651
neb1658
radicle1671
embryo1682
embryo plant1692
plantula1698
plantleta1711
germ1721
niba1722
radicula1725
plantule1727
radicule1728
rostellum1760
radicale1763
rostel1783
heartlet1808
corcle1810
proembryo1849
tigelle1860
hypophysis1875
embryoid1963
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo parts > [noun] > rudiment
germen1608
principle1665
germ1721
primordium1875
anlage1892
fundament1892
proton1893
limb-bud1906
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature 99 After their Fecundation, those Seeds become Opaque, by means of a little Body enclosed, which is properly the Germe or Seed-bud.
1727 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Oeconomique (Dublin ed.) at Corn They steep the Corn..for three Days, that it may swell up, and that the Germes may open, dilate, and be disembarrassed.
1775 H. Rose tr. C. Linnaeus Elements Bot. ii. 19 Cæsalpinus..is the first true systematic writer; distributing his classes according to the situation of the corculum or germ of the seed and receptacle [L. secundum Corculi..& Receptaculi..situm distribuens].
1802 R. Ferryman Observ. Wheat Flour for Bread 10 The inner arillus and the germ contain a considerable portion of essential oil, and a peculiar kind of gluten, nearly approaching to animal gluten.
1858 E. T. Freedley Philadelphia & its Manuf. 193 The drying [of barley] is done in kilns; here the heat destroys the germ of the grain, expels the moisture, and converts it into a sweet and friable grain called malt.
1915 Jrnl. Heredity 6 351/1 Each germ arises from a single flower, and when they are in clusters of two or more,..a multiple-germ seed arises.
1934 Bibliographia Genetica 11 299 Close examination showed that these kernels have a very small germ area and a miniature germ.
1949 Olean (New York) Times Herald 26 Oct. 8/2 Wheat sprouts and grows from the germ.
2005 Delicious Nov. 108/3 Everything in the grain is used to make these flours, including the germ and bran.
c. A seed or spore. Chiefly in figurative contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [noun] > source, seed, or germ
seedeOE
mustard seed?1523
seed corn1586
seedness1597
sperm1639
seminal1646
germ1823
1823 W. Scott Peveril II. viii. 201 The germs of her wilful and capricious passions might have been sown during her wandering and adventurous childhood.
1832 R. Mudie Pop. Guide Observ. Nature 282 The water brings another tribe, the mosses, the germs of many of which are as invisible when alone..as those of the fungi.
1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets i. 1 What made the Jew a Jew, the Greek a Greek, is as unexplained as what daily causes the germs of an oak and of an ash to produce different trees.
1882 Cent. Mag. Dec. 313/1 The wind-sowed germs falling upon the surface of bread, or cheese, or sweetmeats, grow into airy forests of pearls and emeralds and topazes.
1904 Monthly Bull. Div. Zool. (Pennsylvania State Dept. Agric.) Apr. 7 The smut of oats, like the rust and kindred troubles, is due to a disease of the plant. This comes from a ‘germ’ or spore.
2005 A. Burdick Out of Eden (2006) xiv. 181 It will be all everyone can do not to burst from their chairs and scatter through the door, like the germs of jewelweed.
3.
a. A part of an animal which is capable of reproducing it, or developing into a new individual of the same kind; spec. (a) an embryo in its initial stages of development (in early use often as supposedly preformed in the egg or sperm); (b) a cell involved in sexual reproduction, esp. an ovum (sometimes as contrasted with a spermatozoon); (c) a part of an invertebrate involved in asexual reproduction. Frequently attributive (see Compounds 1a, Compounds 3).bud germ, embryo germ, mulberry germ, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > [noun] > at specific stage
germ1646
neurula1878
parenchymula1884
parenchymella1887
typembryo1887
prototypembryo1890
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. i. 50 And therefore Aristotle makes a triall of the fertility of humane seed, from the experiment of congelation, for that sayth hee, which is not watery and improlificall will not conglaciate, which perhaps must not be taken strictly, but in the germe and spirited particles: for egges I observe will freeze, in the generative and albuginous part thereof. View more context for this quotation
1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) iii. xxvii. 151 Whether it [sc. the chicken] be not made out of the grando gallature, germe or tredde of the egge..doth seem of lesser doubt.
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature 100 The Effect produced by this Liquor upon the Eggs, is chiefly to convey the little Germ or Animalcule, which is found in the Egg after that time.
1750 Philos. Trans. 1748 (Royal Soc.) 45 627 They [sc. seeds and eggs] are understood to contain not only the pre-existent Germ, but the Nidus also, if I may so term it, fitted for its Reception.
1784 A. Hamilton Outl. Theory & Pract. Midwifery iv. 68 There can be little doubt that all the parts of animal exist completely in the germ.
1825 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Agric. 292 In all animals it is the business of the female to prepare the ovum or germ.
1855 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom (ed. 2) v. 98 Upon the outer aspect of the newly formed germ, [is] a little spherical body.
1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) xv. 257 Coral-polypes..can also multiply by means of germs, which are thrown off from the parent as free-swimming bodies.
1890 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 28 124 We have seen that the female and male germs can be actually contrasted only on the ground that they are constituted of two kinds of plasma in different proportions.
1917 Poultry Item Feb. 118/3 The greater portion of male germs are destroyed by various causes.
1932 Q. Rev. Biol. 7 298/2 The four young are monoamniotic, because the single germ from which they are derived splits at such a relatively late stage that a common amnion has already been formed.
1959 A. Schierbeek Measuring Invisible World iv. 85 The earlier preformationists were all ‘ovulists’, thinking the egg contained the seat of the germ.
2004 Washington Post (Nexis) 4 Aug. c3 Cellular biology..opens up a whole new image of the battle of the sexes... For all that the male is feverish, jittery, subsultory and always tossing and turning, the female germ is languorous, torpid, slow-paced.
b. The primordium (primordium n. 2) of a part of the body, esp. that of a tooth or feather.enamel germ, tooth germ: see the first element.
ΚΠ
1768 B. Ruspini Treat. Teeth 29 The germ of the teeth, like that of other bones before ossification, is composed of a tissulated mucus separated and divided into a number of cells.
1810 Med. Repository 3rd Hexade 1 219 The germ of the tooth enlarges and meets with the periosteum that invests the jaw.
1822 London Med. Repository 17 58 Suppose, for example, the germ of a superior extremity, ‘it must contain a great variety of dissimilar germs, the germs of bones, cartilages, ligament, nerves, [etc.]’.
1846 R. Owen Brit. Fossil Mammals 433 The horned Ruminants, for example, manifest transitorily in the embryo-state the germs of upper incisors and canines, which disappear before birth.
1890 G. Fleming tr. A. Chauveau Compar. Anat. Domesticated Animals 921 At the summit of the [dental] follicle, facing the ivory germ, is the enamel germ.
1917 Anat. Rec. 13 97 Some new facts concerning the origin of pigment in feather germs were discovered.
1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) xi. 332 In marginal tooth rows..this is a continuous furrow the length of the jaw, a dental lamina, from which individual tooth germs develop.
2007 L. M. Chiappe Glorified Dinosaurs ii. 76/2 Early during its development, a feather originates from a thickening on the skin's surface that grows into a peg-like projection of the skin called the feather germ.
c. The, or a, primal source of life or living organisms.
ΚΠ
1803 T. R. Malthus Ess. Princ. Population (new ed.) i. i. 2 The germs [1806: germes] of existence contained in this spot of earth.
1832 W. Macgillivray Trav. & Researches A. von Humboldt xvii. 222 The idea of those great inundations which for some time extinguished the germs of organic life upon the globe.
1858 E. Lankester & W. B. Carpenter Veg. Physiol. (new ed.) §6 Every organised structure..had its origin in another, which produced a germ capable of living and growing.
1862 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Personal Relig. (1873) i. 10 Who could have believed that the germs of all the fair objects which we behold in nature were in that void and formless earth?
1907 Sci. Amer. 2 Mar. 196/2 The theory which has been called panspermy, according to which the germs of organic life are conveyed through interstellar space.
1966 E. O. James Tree of Life v. 151 ‘The divine self-existent’..desiring to produce from his own body beings of many kinds, first with a thought created the waters and placed in them the germ of life.
1991 S. F. Mason Chem. Evol. ii. 10 Here, according to the panspermists..the vital germs of protein (or DNA after 1953) floated freely, or rode upon the stellar winds.
2000 M. de Villiers Water (new ed.) i. iii. 51 Nun (or Nu) is Chaos, the primordial ocean, the germ of all things.
4. Originally: the causative agent or source of a disease, esp. an infectious disease. In later use: a bacterium or other microorganism, esp. when considered to be a cause of disease.disease germ, malaria germ, yeast germ, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > production of disease > [noun] > cause of disease
conjunct causec1400
continent cause1605
procatarctic1666
procatarxis1681
germ1700
predisponent1771
the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > [noun]
microphyte1859
microzoon1859
microzoary1863
mycetes1874
spore1876
microbe1880
microorganism1880
microzooid1881
microbion1883
bug1885
macrospore1888
microzoan1890
microzoarian1890
zymophyte1890
germ1897
bot1937
probiotic1974
1700 Hist. Wks. Learned Apr. 214 M. Gendron having explained the first Formation of what he calls the Germ of the Cancer, informs us afterwards how it grows.
1764 Monthly Rev. 31 546 He is far from thinking it [sc. smallpox] proceeds from a germe, or a virus, lodged in the blood, and which we bring with us into the world.
1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 9 484 The vaccine virus must act in one or other of these two ways: either it must destroy the germe of the small-pox..or it must neutralize this germe.
1822 Philadelphia Jrnl. Med. & Physical Sci. 4 161 It demonstrates the great volatility of the contagious germ, and its diffusion in the atmosphere.
1845 G. Budd On Dis. Liver ii. 58 It would seem, that cancer-cells, like pus-globules, usually, if not always, become arrested in the liver, and do not pass through to become the germs of cancerous tumors in other organs.
1848 C. Cowdell Disquis. Pestilential Cholera vi. 100 That persons, bio-chemically (electrically) predisposed, suffered from the rapid germination in the blood of the germs, thus admitted.
1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) II. xiii. 210 No germ from the kitchen air had ascended the narrow necks.
1897 R. Muir & J. Ritchie Man. Bacteriol. i. 2 Other general words, such as germ, microbe, micro-organism, are often used as synonymous with bacterium, though, strictly, they include the smallest organisms of the animal kingdom.
1905 School Sci. & Math. 5 496 Enough germs are sent in each little package to inoculate seeds for from one to four acres.
1938 Amer. Home Jan. 3 (advt.) Listerine kills germs associated with colds and sore throat.
1963 N. Bawden Secret Passage iii. 40 They've lived in Africa for so long that they haven't any resistance to English germs.
2001 N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Dec. 79/1 By killing germs that infants need to encounter, antibacterials may interfere with the development of babies' immune systems.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > flower or part containing reproductive organs > [noun] > parts of > ovary
seed bud1721
ovarium1724
seed nest1727
ovary1731
germ1758
germen1759
ovulary1898
1758 Gentleman's Mag. June 273 The stamina not fixed to the corolla, but adhering by a viscous down to the germ, after the corolla is fallen.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. i. 25 The swoln base with three blunted angles, called the Germ or Ovary.
1803 B. S. Barton Elements Bot. 175 In very many plants the style is unequivocally tubular: that is, there is an open or uninterrupted cavity leading from the stigma..to the ovary, or germ.
1834 Jrnl. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7 25 The germ superior, indicating the structure of a berry rather than that of a capsule.
Phrases
in (its) germ: in or at the earliest stage; in a rudimentary form. [After French dans le germe (17th cent.), dans son germe (early 18th cent. or earlier), etc.]
ΚΠ
1769 T. Smollett et al. tr. Voltaire Wks. XXVI. 212 The inhabitants were ignorant that elsewhere love might be infected with a destructive poison; that generation was attacked in its germ [Fr. les générations fussent attaquées dans leur germe].
1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) I. 222 An apathy..nips all efforts at action in their germ.
1850 R. Belaney in Churchman's Pulpit 220/1 The sin, in germ, too, was there which made that sentence as perfectly just, as if we had each put forth our hands simultaneously with Adam's, to break the holy commandment of God.
1868 M. Pattison Suggestions Acad. Organisation v. 227 The idea exists in germ in the University itself.
1888 Q. Rev. July 127 Austria, with the help of Hanover, did her best to stifle the project in its germ.
1909 F. F. Abbott Society & Politics Anc. Rome 204 The practices which prevailed in the second and third centuries A.D. probably existed, in their germ at least, in student circles at Athens at the beginning of our era.
1944 C. G. Haines Role Supreme Court in Amer. Govt. & Politics, 1789–1835 i. iii. 97 In this opinion there is in germ at least the idea that a written constitution is a supreme law and, as such, is to be interpreted and enforced by the Judiciary.
1994 R. Omnès Interpr. Quantum Mech. iii. 114 The abstract formalism contains in germ a faithful description of all the real phenomena of physics.
2009 R. M. Berry in R. T. Eldridge Oxf. Handbk. Philos. & Lit. i. ix. 203 This preexistent autoproductivity in philosophy's origin, the necessity linking whatever something will become to what, in its germ, it already is.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. In senses 3a and (less commonly) 2, as germ cup, germ filament, germ gland, germ mass, germ shield, germ transmission, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > secretory organs > gland > types of gland > [noun]
miliary gland1691
mucilaginous gland1691
mucous gland1699
acinus1702
crypta1726
glandule1751
crypt1804
globate gland1813
ganglion1819
submaxillary1824
lacrimal1829
germ gland1840
sweat-gland1845
ductless glands1849
lymph node1892
metasternal1965
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > germ cell or mass
seminary1671
germinal cell1840
germ mass1840
germ cell1842
cleavage-mass1871
cleavage-cell1879
cleavage-globule1879
gastrodisc1881
blastule1882
1840 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 9 17 We have already given Purkinje's description of the blastoderma, or germ-membrane.
1845 G. Busk tr. J. J. S. Steenstrup On Alternation of Generations iv. 89 Siebold remarks, that he has found these ‘nursing animals’, or germ-sacs, within other similar ‘nursing animals’, or other germ-sacs.
1849 R. Owen Parthenogenesis 39 Such unmetamorphosed germ-masses.
1853 E. J. Tilt On Dis. Women (ed. 2) xv. 149 Similar practices may produce spurious pregnancy in woman, or morbid ovulation and inflammation of the germ-gland.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. 297 The dull-coloured shield-shaped spot itself is the first rudiment of the dorsal portion of the embryo. We will call it briefly the ‘germ-shield’ (notaspis).
1889 A. W. Bennett & G. R. M. Murray Handbk. Cryptogamic Bot. 20 An inner endospore..which bursts through the exospore on germination, producing the germ-filament.
1889 H. Campbell Causation Dis. 135 The slightest dislocation of the ultimate germ and sperm-particles will modify the entire future development of the embryo.
1900 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 June 1440/2 By the process of mitosis these infinitesimal germ particles are supposed to be distributed to the daughter nuclei in two different ways.
1905 Cosmopolitan Mag. Sept. 466/1 The blastula gradually changes into a more complex organism, the ‘gastrula’... It is now a germ-cup with walls consisting of a double layer of tissue.
1910 A. O. J. Kelly Pract. Med. i. 181 By the mother (germ transmission), the father being healthy.
1931 Mycologia 23 255 Resemblances quite analogous to this may be found between the genera Phytophthora, Albugo, Basidiophora, Sclerospora and, in part, Plasmopara, where the stage of the germ sac (true zoösporangium or vesicle) has almost entirely been suppressed.
1940 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 50 333/1 In mammals they [sc. the sexual cells]..wander through the connective tissue of the mesenterium toward that spot on the dorsal wall of the body where the germ gland arises.
1970 Jrnl. Parasitol. 56 59/1 Four daughter sporocysts obtained from a ruptured 24-day mother sporocyst were studied. These immature individuals averaged 222 by 20 and contained round germ masses.
2005 Amer. Biol. Teacher 67 553/2 (caption) Spores were considered ‘germinated’ when the primary germ filament ruptured the spore wall.
b. In sense 4, as germ cloud, germ dust, germ nursery, etc.
ΚΠ
1860 Once a Week 14 Jan. 53/1 We must feel not a little astonished at finding the dust we examine so very abundant in starch, coal, silica,..hair, scales, and even live animals, and so strangely deficient in this germ-dust!
1876 Med. Times & Gaz. 29 Jan. 115/2 The surgeon, again, may find an explanation for many a puzzling case..in the theory of germ clouds.
1884 19th Cent. Feb. 331 The disease-germs..rising in germ-clouds and wafted by air-currents.
1897 Daily News 1 June 3/2 The lack of any sort of attempt at efficient sanitation, must, I think, have made of the place a germ nursery [etc.].
1972 W. H. Auden in New Yorker 24 June 32/1 You've repelled all germ invasions, but never chastised my tantrums with a megrim.
2003 G. Newton From Victoria to Viagra (Wellcome Trust) 20/3 The rapid development of germ work in the 1880s and 1890s was the basis for the development of an understanding of the causes of most infections.
C2. Objective, instrumental, limitative, etc. (esp. in sense 4), as germ breeder, germ-caused, germ-forming, germ killer, germ-proof, etc.
ΚΠ
1836 W. E. Shuckard tr. H. Burmeister Man. Entomol. i. 306 The passive part, or germ-forming individual [is called] the female.
1844 R. Willis tr. R. Wagner Elements Physiol. i. §1. 1 These elements are formed and separated from the blood in the germ-preparing organs of the male and female.
1868 J. Dewar On Applic. Sulphurous Acid (ed. 10) 23 For as the clothes absorb and long retain an odour of the gas, the wearer will thereby carry with him a germ-proof shelter from epidemic invasion.
1895 Westm. Gaz. 7 Aug. 2/1 There is no germ-breeder like an outcast.
1926 People's Home Jrnl. Feb. 16/1 (advt.) Dental science now traces scores of tooth and gum troubles to a germ-laden film that forms on your teeth.
1946 Liberty 15 June 81/1 Some of the ‘meateasies’ and slaughterhouses used for illegal butchering are in dirty shacks, dark unventilated basements, and other germ-infested hideaways.
1969 P. Bowles Let. 20 Aug. in In Touch (1994) 428 The dust gets so germ-laden after so many months without any rain that one marvels the disease is so benign.
1988 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 30 Oct. g4 Did you also know that science has proved the onion to be one of the most powerful germ killers in the world?
2003 National Post (Canada) 30 Apr. s1/5 Perhaps germ-killing goo, in this era of incurable plagues, has become the new cologne.
C3. † germ cellule n. Obsolete rare (J. D. Dana's name for) a cell involved in various types of sexual or asexual reproduction, giving rise to spores or new individuals.† germ-cone n. Obsolete rare (J. D. Dana's name for) a volcanic cone in its earliest stage.† germ-polyp n. Obsolete rare (J. D. Dana's name for) a polyp (polyp n. 2b) that gives rise to others by budding.† germ yolk n. Obsolete that part of an ovum which undergoes division to form an embryo; = formative yolk n. at formative adj. and n. Additions.
germ area n. (a) = germinal disc n. at germinal adj. Compounds (now rare); (b) the area of a seed which contains the embryo (cf. sense 2b). [In sense (a) after scientific Latin area germinativa (1837 or earlier); compare German Fruchthof, lit. ‘fruit court’ (1817 or earlier).]
ΚΠ
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. x. 292 Sometimes, therefore, it was called the ‘germ-disc’ (discus blastodermicus), sometimes the ‘embryonic spot’ (tache embryonnaire), but more usually the germ-area (area germinativa).
1915 Jrnl. Morphol. 26 304 A discoidal area, the germinal disc or germ area.
1940 Plant Physiol. 15 266 The small germ area of rye compared with the total area of the kernel, and the relatively smooth surface of the rye kernel..may both contribute to the low rate of respiration of this cereal.
2002 J. W. DeVries et al. Adv. Exper. Med. & Biol. 504 198 The hyphae then grow under the seed coat in the tip and germ area.
germ bomb n. a bomb containing bacteria that cause disease, used in bacteriological warfare.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [noun] > bomb > other bombs
iron bomb1759
suicide bomb1889
crump1914
radio bomb1914
marmite1915
pineapple bomb1916
pineapple1918
germ bomb1921
stick-bomb1928
bomblet1937
breadbasket1940
flash bomb1940
blockbuster1942
butterfly bomb1942
screamer1942
plastic bomb1944
napalm bomb1945
mail bomb1972
blast bomb1976
1917 G. L. Morrill Devil in Mexico 113 The microbes..fly merrily and madly over the city, dropping disease germ-bombs on the women and children.]
1921 New Republic 20 July 225/1 He has no such feeling about the possibilities of gas-bombs, germ-bombs, the killing of women, submarine and aeroplane warfare.
2008 E. Willett Marseguro 300 The germ-bomb's explosion had sent half the facade sliding down onto the cobblestones in a pile of undifferentiated bricks.
germ cell n. [in sense (a) after German Keimzelle (1840 in the passage translated in quot. 1842)] †(a) the fertilized ovum (zygote), or a cell immediately derived from this (obsolete); (b) a cell involved in sexual reproduction; an ovum, spermatozoon, or cell that gives rise to these; (in early use) spec. †the egg as contrasted with the sperm (obsolete).
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > germ cell or mass
seminary1671
germinal cell1840
germ mass1840
germ cell1842
cleavage-mass1871
cleavage-cell1879
cleavage-globule1879
gastrodisc1881
blastule1882
1842 W. Baly tr. J. Müller Elements Physiol. II. 1448 The embryo of plants and animals..is composed of a number of cells similar to the first, or germ cell.
1855 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals (ed. 2) 673 Germ-cell, the first nucleated cell that appears in the impregnated ovum, after the reception of the spermatozoon and the disappearance of the germinal vesicle.
1868 W. B. Carpenter Microscope (ed. 4) 335 The Sexual distinction of the Generative cells into ‘Sperm-cells’ and ‘Germ-cells’.
1886 Nature 28 Oct. 631/1 Amongst these [sc. unicellular Protozoan ancestors] there is no distinction between body-cells and germ-cells.
1918 Cunningham's Text-bk. Anat. (ed. 5) 12 The germ cells reach their full development in special sex glands, the ova in the ovaries of the female and the spermatozoa in the testes of the male.
2004 Independent 5 Aug. 3/1 The technique relies on transplants of ‘primordial germ cells’, which are the specialised tissues of embryonic fish that eventually develop into the gonads.
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1846 J. D. Dana U.S. Exploring Exped.: Zoophytes v. 92 This new germ-cellule enlarges.
1857 J. D. Dana in Bibliotheca Sacra July 470 The germ-cellule produces, through a process of gemmation, a multitude of cellules.
1883 J. D. Dana New Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 4) 187 They produce spores in place of true seeds, the spore being a simple cellule, while true seeds have about the germ-cellule more or less of albumen and starch for the nutriment of the embryo plant.
germ centre n. [after German Keimcentrum (W. Flemming 1885, in Arch. f. mikrosk. Anat. 24 55); now Keimzentrum] now rare = germinal centre n. at germinal adj. Compounds.
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1889 J. G. M'Kendrick Textbk. Physiol. II. 150 The germ centres in particular are the seat of the formation of leucocytes.
1956 J. M. Yoffey & F. C. Courtice Lymphatics, Lymph & Lymphoid Tissue (ed. 2) v. 269 There is increased activity of the lymphoid tissues in response to bacterial injections, and..the main site of the reaction is the germ centre.
1973 Human Pathol. 4 309/2 The latter are comparable to those in the mucosa, and in neither instance do they possess all the features characteristic of lymphoid germ centers.
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1849 J. D. Dana U.S. Exploring Exped.: Geol. vii. 362 They illustrate the germ-cone, proceeding from eruptions by overflowings, and through fissures.
germ disc n. = germinal disc n. at germinal adj. Compounds.
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1833 H. Mayo Outl. Human Physiol. (ed. 3) xv. 373 The discus proligerus, or germ disc, composed of closely-coherent granules.
1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. v. 177 Thus in many yolk-filled eggs like those of the Teleosts, the protoplasm..now collects at the animal pole into a thick and fairly circumscribed disc called the germ disc.
2009 I. D. Papel Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surg. lxxiii. 1019/2 During the second week..the bilaminar germ disc is formed with ectodermal and endodermal germ layers.
germ force n. now disused a (supposed) force directing the organized growth and development of the embryo.
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1849 Brit. & Foreign Medico-chirurg. Rev. 4 414 The ‘germ-force’ tends always to the attainment of the perfection of the specific form.
1891 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 29 80 I wish to call your attention to a similar explanation of the phenomena of germ force and heredity by the law of transference.
1912 W. W. Kinsley Was Christ Divine? 4 The germ-force lodged inside every minute sphere of fish-spawn exhibits in its work the same Divine depths of wisdom and perfection of skill.
germ-free adj. free of microorganisms, aseptic (also figurative).
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1877 C. Graham in Nature 18 Jan. 249/2 Thus the juice heated in a Pasteur flask with the usual precautions against the admission of germ-laden air did not undergo fermentation when freely exposed to germ-free air.
1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise iv. 69 We spend our whole time asking intimate questions of perfect strangers... ‘Are you Sure that your Toilet-Paper is Germ-free?’
1969 Times 28 Jan. 6/7 The apparatus for the germ-free birth..is designed to make possible a cure for a deficiency disease of the body's immune defence system.
2000 Opera Now Jan. 45/1 It's too antiseptic, theatre in a germ-free glass case with a desperately limited vocabulary of hand movements.
germ layer n. Embryology any of the layers of cells into which the blastoderm divides (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm); (in early use also) †the blastoderm itself (obsolete); cf. earlier germinal layer n. at germinal adj. Compounds.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo parts > [noun] > membrane and layers of cells
germinal layer1836
cell layer1843
mucous layer1846
germ layer1855
mesoblast1857
blastoderm1859
head fold1873
mesoderm1873
epiblast1875
hypoblast1875
splanchnopleure1875
mesenchyme1881
acroblast1884
mesothelium1886
epimere1890
mesectoderm1894
mesendoderm1894
cœloblast1895
placode1907
shield1913
mesentoderm1921
meristoderm1945
bilayer1962
1855 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals (ed. 2) xii. 260 When the yolk has undergone its subdivision, and its peripheral stratum has been metamorphosed into the primitive germ-layer, a large clear space or cell appears in the centre.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. 13 For example, the sexual organs of the human embryo..appear to originate from the middle germ-layer.
1932 M. T. Harman Textbk. Embryol. xviii. 314 The germ layer or germ layers from which the blood and the blood system arise has been variously given. By some authors it has been assigned to a definite germ layer of its own, the angioblast.
2002 S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory x. 1150 Their maximally simplified development even proceeds without gastrulation or the differentiation of germ layers.
germ life n. the life of a germ, or life at the stage of a germ (in various senses); (also) living germs (esp. in sense 4).
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1851 Lancet 23 Aug. 175/1 We may readily admit the influence of syphilis in parents in developing hereditary disease in the offspring, by its lowering the power of the germ-life.
1875 E. White Life in Christ (1878) iii. xx. 288 Here we are thrown back upon some considerations on the phenomena of germ-life in general.
1920 W. M. Decker Bk. Medit. 51 It takes three lives to make a loaf of bread. The germ life, or seeds of the wheat, furnish the flour.
1978 Hastings Center Rep. 7/1 Pope Pius XII once warned against reducing the cohabitation of married persons to the transmission of germ life.
2005 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 15 Dec. 14 Doing the dishes in it and drying them (and myself) on towels no doubt rampant with invisible germ-life.
germ line n. a series of germ cells each descended from earlier cells in the series, regarded as continuing through successive generations of an organism; cf. germ track n.; frequently attributive.
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1916 Amer. Jrnl. Anat. 20 398 At this time, also, it is necessary to say something about the continuity of the mitochondria in the germ line.
1987 New Scientist 19 Nov. (Inside Sci. section) 2/3 If a virus misses the cells that will go on to form the sex cells (the germ line), the animal will not be able to pass the foreign gene onto its offspring.
2007 D. S. Wilson Evol. for Everyone xviii. 136 Why is there a division between cells that are destined to reproduce (the germ line) and cells that are destined to build the body of the organism (the somatic line) that takes place very early in development?
germ plasm n. [after German Keimplasma ( A. Weismann Über die Vererbung (1883) 15)] (a) the physical substance responsible for the transfer of inherited traits from one generation to the next; genetic material (later identified as DNA); †a unit of this (obsolete); (b) plant or animal material collected to serve as a gene bank.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > germ cell or mass > germ plasm
germ plasm1885
germ plasma1885
1885 Nature 17 Dec. 155/1 It is pointed out that the germ-cells on it appear no longer as a product of the body, at least as far as their essential part, the germ-plasm, is concerned.
1893 W. N. Parker & H. Rönnfeldt tr. A. Weismann Germ-plasm i. i. 62 We are led to the assumption of groups..composed of determinants, which in their turn are made up of biophors. These are the units which I formulated..long ago, and to which the name of ancestral germ-plasms was then given.
1956 J. G. Moseman Eval. Varieties & Select. Barley 1 In recent years the collection has served as a reservoir of germ plasm to aid in meeting problems that arise in barley production.
1990 Sci. Amer. June 78/2 Yet in addition to diversification, germ plasm (seeds, root stocks and pollen) from traditional crops and their wild relatives must be collected and preserved continually.
2002 S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory iii. 201 Lamarckian inheritance becomes structurally impossible because acquired somatic adaptations cannot affect the protected germ plasm.
germ plasma n. = germ plasm n.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > germ cell or mass > germ plasm
germ plasm1885
germ plasma1885
1885 Nature 17 Dec. 154/2 (heading) The continuity of the germ-plasma considered as the basis of a theory of heredity.
1966 Symp. Res. in Agric. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 101/1 For wheat research, perhaps the greatest reservoir of germ plasma that exists anywhere in the world is contained on 30 acres at the research station at Sonora, Mexico.
2002 Independent 10 Jan. ii. 6/2 I immediately think of his..realisation of the need to radically rethink the long-standing potato breeding programme, by returning to the wild and seeking new germ plasmas.
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1846 J. D. Dana U.S. Exploring Exped.: Zoophytes iv. 63 Germ-polyps differ essentially in their mode of increase.
germ pore n. [after German Keimpore (1884 in the passage translated in quot. 1887)] Mycology a thin area in the wall of a fungal spore through which a germ tube may emerge during germination.
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1887 H. E. F. Garnsey & I. B. Balfour tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi iii. 100 Many of these pores serve as places of exit for the tubular outgrowths from the spore at the time of germination, and may therefore be termed germ-pores [Keimporen].
1950 L. E. Hawker Physiol. Fungi i. 4 Some thick-walled spores, notably those of certain rusts, have definitely thin places (germ pores) in the outer wall through which the germ-tubes emerge.
2006 Mycologia 98 991/1 Many taxa in the Agaricoid clade possess basidiospores with an apical germ pore.
germ spot n. = germinal spot n. at germinal adj. Compounds.
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1830 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 9 299 In the unincubated egg of the common fowl, the cicatricula, or germ spot, lying on the surface of the yolk, is of a round form, a whitish colour, and generally about one-sixth of an inch in diameter.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. viii. 179 We assume that the germ-vesicle does not completely disappear, but that the germ-spot (nucleolus) remains and amalgamates at the moment of fertilization with the nucleus (or nucleolus ?) of the sperm-cell.
1914 Poultry Item Dec. 41/1 The nutritive material needed for the growth of the blastoderm, or germ spot, is supplied by the yolk of the egg.
1998 Colonial Waterbirds 21 348/2 Only the germ spot (blastodisc) was evident on the yolk prior to incubation.
germ stage n. the stage of being a germ (in various senses); an initial or early stage, esp. in the development of an organism.
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1857 P. H. Gosse Omphalos xi. 302 You allow that the primitive Mangrove was created in some stage, but you contend for the germ-stage, the simplest condition of the plant, whatever that might be.
1882 Quain's Med. Dict. 533/1 The different kinds of contagia..may in essence be..cast-off micro-organisms of a low type, either in their ‘finished’ condition or in a germ-stage.
1922 Hawaiian Forester & Agriculturist 19 152 Seedling stock from seed..would have the advantage of acclimatization from the germ stage.
1985 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 18 48 Because unity of plan among molluscs and fishes was restricted to the primary or germ stage of foetal development—after which there was a fundamental divergence—it was impossible to conceive of a squid transmuting into a fish.
2008 Calgary Sun (Alberta) (Nexis) 10 June 39 Everything is in the germ stages, it's going to be a comedy, it will be me trying to be funny and it will be filmed in colour.
germ stock n. [in sense (a) after German Keimstock (1837 in the passage translated in quot. 1842)] (a) any of several types of reproductive structure in invertebrates; esp. a part of the body from which new individuals arise asexually, usually by budding (now disused); (b) a supply of genetic material; a gene pool.
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1842 W. Baly tr. J. Müller Elements Physiol. II. vii. 1442 In Cœnurus, the vesicles which bear the numerous heads are at the same time germ-stocks, upon which the new individuals are developed as buds.
1857 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Soc. 5 224 I would retain the denominations ‘germ-body’ and ‘germ-stock’ for these reproductive organs of the viviparous Aphides.
1885 A. Sedgwick & F. G. Heathcote tr. C. Claus Elem. Text-bk. Zool.: Mollusca to Man 89 The budding takes place on different parts of the body, sometimes is confined to definite places or to a germ-stock (stolo prolifer).
1910 G. Leighton Sci. Christianity x. 182 When the son, too, is a mathematician, like the father, it is because both come from a common germ-stock, which gives rise to brains of a given quality, a given capacity for acquiring mental traits.
2008 J. D. Watson in J. A. Witkowski & J. R. Inglis Davenport's Dream 11 29 states maintained laws against black-white intermarriages, often using the argument that the superior white germ stock would be diluted with inferior genes.
germ theory n. the theory that infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms (cf. sense 4).
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1863 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 Dec. 598/2 The one simple experiment of inoculation for small-pox, and of the direct transmission of the disorder from one person to another by this method, is instant proof that the germ-theory is acceptable.
1925 Times 17 July 11/4 Gye has solved the riddle by showing that both views of cancer—the germ theory and the growth theory—are right.
2002 R. Porter Blood & Guts iv. 86 Pasteur by no means invented the ‘germ theory’—disease is caused by invasion of the body by microscopic living organisms: it had long been touted.
germ track n. [after German Keimbahnen (1892 in the passage translated in quot. 1893)] now historical a continuous series of cells giving rise to the gametes during the development of an individual organism; cf. germ line n.
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1893 W. N. Parker & H. Rönnfeldt tr. A. Weismann Germ-plasm vi. 184 The transmission of the germ-plasm from the ovum to the place of origin of the reproductive cells..takes place in a regular manner, through perfectly definite series of cells which I call germ-tracks.
1910 J. A. Thomson Heredity xii. 454 Theoretically it makes no difference how long the ‘germ-track’ may be, or how long it may be before recognisable germ-cells are seen in the developing organism.
1985 Jrnl. Hist. Biol. 18 314 This observation led Weismann in 1885 to his theory of the ‘continuity of the germ plasm’, which states that the ‘germ track’ is separate from the body (soma) track from the very beginning.
germ tube n. †(a) Zoology (in salps) a tubular organ in which the asexually produced buds develop (obsolete rare); (b) Mycology a tubular process emerging from a germinating fungal spore, typically developing into a hypha. [In sense (a) after German Keimröhre (1841), itself after Danish kümrör ( D. Eschricht Anatomisk-physiologiske Undersögelser over Salperne (1840) , 73); in sense (b) after German Keimschlauch (1884 in the source translated in quot. 1887).]
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1845 G. Busk tr. J. J. S. Steenstrup On Alternation of Generations v. 112 The associated brood of the Salpæ..is contained in what can in no case be an ovary, and which the author [sc. Prof. Eschricht] has termed a ‘germ-tube’ (Keimrohre [sic]).
1887 H. E. F. Garnsey & I. B. Balfour tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi iii. 109 In nutrient solutions it [sc. the spore] usually puts out germ-tubes.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. xxv. 491 Each conidiospore, if germinated at higher temperatures (about 24°C.), produces a germ-tube directly.
2009 B. F. Carver Wheat v. 102/2 After a germ tube passes through a stoma, it forms a substomatal vesicle, from which branched hyphae grow intercellularly.
germ vesicle n. now rare or disused = germinal vesicle n. at germinal adj. Compounds.
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1840 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 9 5 The most internal of the two, viz. the fluid sphere and its membrane, is called..the ‘vesicle of Purkinje’, or, generally, the ‘germ-vesicle’.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. viii. 214 This process..is really nothing but the inversion of the vegetative hemisphere into the animal hemisphere of the germ-vesicle.
1922 B. F. Kaupp Poultry Dis. (ed. 3) 295 Such monsters as those having a double head, or four legs, etc., come from a single yolk which has two or more distinct germ vesicles.
germ warfare n. (a) engagement in sustained attempts to eliminate harmful bacteria; (b) the deliberate dissemination of bacteria that cause disease among an enemy as a weapon of war; = bacteriological warfare n. at bacteriological adj. b.
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society > armed hostility > war > types of war > [noun] > chemical or germ warfare
chemical warfare1912
germ warfare1919
bacteriological warfare1924
biological warfare1933
biowar1950
biowarfare1951
1895 Proc. Kansas Med. Soc. 29 279 We would naturally, at this age of germ warfare, place antiseptics at the head of the list of remedial agents.
1919 Chem. & Metall. Engin. 15 Apr. 414/1 It was denied its opportunity to demonstrate in a big way what it could do to win the war against the Huns, but I believe it has a far greater opportunity in the germ warfare of peace times.
1938 Harper's Mag. Mar. 367 Lurid descriptions of death rays, rocket planes, germ warfare.
1987 P. Wilson in G. S. Semsel Chinese Film i. 29 Before surrender in 1945 the Japanese had been preparing to use germ warfare.
2009 W. Meller Evol. Rx ii. 25 (heading) Germ warfare: new strategies in an ancient battle.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > ovum or ootid > yolk > types of yolk
germ yolk1849
archiblast1876
parablast1876
tropholecithus1879
1849 Med. Times 14 July 43/2 The first germ-cell appears in the midst of a thick granular germ-yolk.
1890 B. T. Lowne Anat., Physiol., Morphol., & Devel. Blow-fly vii. 238 The vegetative pole of the morula, which results from the segmentation of the germ-yelk.
1902 Hahnemannian Monthly Aug. 574 The mysterious process of cell-cleavage immediately following the impregnation of the germ-yolk progresses rapidly during the first few days.
1914 Youth's Compan. 6 Aug. 408/3 An egg contains germ yolk that becomes the chick and food yolk that nourishes the chick as it grows.
Derivatives
germ-like adj.
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1789 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy III. vi. 143 To me it appears that something germ-like [Ger. etwas keimliches], or a whole capable of receiving the human form, must, previously, exist in the mother.
1839 Ann. Nat. Hist. 3 460 Many of the latter possess similar seed-like bodies or sporidia, as well as the locomotive germ-like bodies or sporules.
1894 C. S. Ashley in Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 458 Industrial society, like all other organisms, begins with a simple germ-like state.
1965 Times 22 Oct. 18/5 To analyse the music is to discover its consistent emphasis on the arguable possibilities of a few germlike patterns.
2002 Jrnl. Social Hist. 35 764 Drugs may be akin to germ-like pathogens but they don't affect everyone in the same way.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
germv.
/dʒəːm/, U.S. /dʒərm/ Now rare. † 2. transitive. To cause to produce new growth; to cause to germinate. Chiefly in figurative contexts and figurative. Cf. germinate v. 1. Obsolete.
1. intransitive. To produce new buds or shoots; to germinate (germinate v. 2). Chiefly in figurative contexts and figurative.
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the world > plants > by growth or development > grow or vegetate [verb (intransitive)] > sprout or put forth new growth
spriteOE
wrideOE
brodc1175
comea1225
spirec1325
chicka1400
sprouta1400
germin?1440
germ1483
chip?a1500
spurgea1500
to put forth1530
shootc1560
spear1570
stock1574
chit1601
breward1609
pullulate1618
ysproutc1620
egerminate1623
put1623
germinate1626
sprent1647
fruticate1657
stalk1666
tiller1677
breerc1700
fork1707
to put out1731
stool1770
sucker1802
stir1843
push1855
braird1865
fibre1869
flush1877
the world > existence and causation > creation > productiveness > be productive [verb (intransitive)]
yield1297
fruit1377
seeda1398
germ1483
buddle1581
fructuate1663
seminate1676
teem1746
spend1854
to lift well1959
1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. 91v/2 Whan the braunches been cutte of the knotte that remayneth..It germeth and bryngeth forth newe buddes [Fr. gecte germe, L. producit germina] in al the places of the cuttynge.
a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 81 Fresche flour of ȝouthe, new germyng to burgeoun.
1766 Ann. Reg. 1765 137/1 (heading) Easy method of making seed, sown in the field, germ and take root in the driest seasons.
1797 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 23 572 Liberty may germ there, prolong its roots, and come to timber.
1813 M. A. Schimmelpenninck Narr. Tour Grande Chartreuse & Alet 48 They remained dormant, and it was not till long after, that they germed and fructified.
1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters xiv. 346 He almost constantly allows a dormant passion to germ and sprout forth, and effloresce by slow degrees.
1885 Longman's Mag. 6 539 Dreaming of some new project germing in his ever fertile brain.
1916 C. Hagberg Wright in W. Stephens Soul of Russia i. 12 A movement towards intellectual expansion had been slowly germing.
1993 Y. Fautrelle in H. Branover & Y. Unger Metall. Technol., Energy Conversion, & Magnetohydrodynamic Flows i. 4 Many ideas have germed, but few have really emerged as industrial processes.
2010 P. Abraham Amer. Taliban 87 The seed of Sufism was sown in the time of Adam, germed in the time of Noah, budded in the time of Abraham, began to develop in the time of Moses.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > sowing > sow seed [verb (transitive)] > germinate
to run out1719
sprout1770
germ1791
stratify1827
1791 J. Hervey Refl. Flower-garden 118 in Medit. among Tombs (new ed.) As yet the tender twigs have scarced germed their future blossoms.
1830 J. S. Memes tr. L. A. F. De Bourrienne Private Mem. N. Bonaparte III. v. 122 It was an armed promenade, not a war; but how many events were germed in that invasion!
1841 G. Catlin Lett. N. Amer. Indians I. iii. 18 The mud and soil in which they [sc. trees] were germed and reared has been washed out from underneath them.
1891 L. C. Hubbard Coming Climax xvii. 342 The true lesson of the French revolution..is the superhuman energy, courage and sacrifice that were germed by its democratic idea.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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