germ
See also: Germ, germ., and Germ.
English
Etymology
From Middle French germe, from Latin germen (“bud, seed, embryo”). Doublet of germen.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /d͡ʒɜːm/
- (General American) enPR: jûrm, IPA(key): /d͡ʒɝm/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m
Noun
germ (plural germs)
- (biology) The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
- The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
- (biology) The small mass of cells from which a part of an organism develops, or a macroscopic but immature form of that part; a bud.
- Coordinate term: vesicle
- Derived terms: germectomy
- surgical removal of germs of wisdom teeth
- A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
- 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:
- 'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'
- (figurative) The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.
- the germ of civil liberty
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], OCLC 1042815524, part I, page 194:
- What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth? - the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.
- (mathematics) An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.
Derived terms
terms derived from germ (noun)
- germicidal
- germicide
- germ warfare
- germ cell
- germicidal
- germicide
- germinal
- germinate
- germination
- germinative
- germ layer
- germ plasm
- germ theory
Translations
mass of cells
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pathogenic microorganism
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idea
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embryo of a seed
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
germ (third-person singular simple present germs, present participle germing, simple past and past participle germed)
- To germinate.
- 1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy
- Thus tempted, the lust to avenge me / Germed inly and grew.
- 1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy
- (slang) To grow, as if parasitic.
- 2011, Black Eyed Peas, Just Can't Get Enough
- I’m addicted, want to germ inside your love
- 2011, Black Eyed Peas, Just Can't Get Enough
See also
- bacteria
- microbe
- parasite
- virus
Further reading
- germ in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- germ in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Northern Kurdish
Etymology
From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɛɾm
Adjective
germ (comparative germtir, superlative germtirîn)
- warm
Derived terms
- germahî
Zazaki
Etymology
From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.
Adjective
germ
- warm
Derived terms
- germey
- germin
- germın