germinate

germinate

English

Etymology

Latin germinatus, past participle of germinare (“to sprout”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɜː(ɹ)mɪneɪt/

• Audio (Berkshire)

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Verb

germinate (third-person singular simple present germinates, present participle germinating, simple past and past participle germinated)

1. (intransitive, botany, horticulture) Of a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], OCLC 1044372886:

     the Chalcites, which hath a Spirit that will put forth and germinate

   • 2014 April 5, “Quite interesting: A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week; QI orchids you not”, in The Daily Telegraph (Weekend), page W22:

     Orchids rely on fungi to reproduce. Their tiny seeds don't have any on-board nutrients (like beans and apples) and will not germinate until they are infected by a symbiotic fungus which supplies them with food. Known as a protocorm, this tiny orchid-fungus ball grows, turns green and eventually starts to photosynthesise.

   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, page 7]”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 23 December 2014:

     […] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.

2. (transitive) To cause to grow; to produce.
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:

     These were business hours, and a feeling of loneliness crept over him, perhaps germinated by his sight of the illustrated papers, and accentuated by an attempted perusal of them.

Synonyms

• ackerspyre (Chester)

Translations

sprout or produce buds

Bulgarian: покълвам (pokǎlvam), пониквам (bg) (ponikvam) Catalan: germinar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 發芽／发芽 (zh) (fāyá) Finnish: itää (fi) Galician: xerminar, xermolar (gl) Georgian: ამოსვლა (amosvla), აღმოცენება (aɣmoceneba), გაღივება (gaɣiveba) German: keimen (de) Gothic: 𐌺𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌽 (keinan) Greek: βλαστάνω (el) (vlastáno), φυτρώνω (el) (fytróno) Hungarian: csírázik (hu) Icelandic: spíra, skjóta frjóöngum Ido: jermifar (io) Latin: germinō Maori: kahu, tinaku Norwegian: spire (no) Romanian: germina (ro), încolți (ro) Russian: прорастать (ru) (prorastatʹ) Spanish: germinar (es) Swedish: gro (sv) Turkish: bitmek (tr), filizlenmek (tr) Westrobothnian: mälltes, mäält, fenäs

cause to grow

Chinese: Mandarin: 產生／产生 (zh) (chǎnshēng), 形成 (zh) (xíngchéng) Finnish: idättää (fi) Hungarian: csíráztat (hu) Russian: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• germanite, reteaming

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Italian

Verb

germinate

1. inflection of germinare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• emigrante, meringate, regimante, regimenta, remigante, tergemina

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Latin

Participle

germināte

1. vocative masculine singular of germinātus