germ

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French germe < Latin germen shoot, sprout, by dissimilation from *genmen, equivalent to gen- (see genitor, genus) + -men resultative noun suffix)

Related forms

germ·less, adjective

germ·like, adjective

Synonyms
4. spark, root, bud, rudiment, seed.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To germ

Collins

World English Dictionary

germ (dʒɜːm)

—n
1.	a microorganism, esp one that produces disease in animals or plants
2.	(often plural) the rudimentary or initial form of something: the germs of revolution
3.	a simple structure, such as a fertilized egg, that is capable of developing into a complete organism

[C17: from French germe, from Latin germen sprig, bud, sprout, seed]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

germ

1644, "rudiment of a new organism in an existing one," from M.Fr. germe, from L. germen (gen. germinis) "sprout, bud," from PIE base *gen- "to beget, bear" (cf. Skt. janman "birth, origin;" see genus). The original sense is preserved in wheat germ and germ of an idea; sense

of "seed of a disease" first recorded 1803; that of "harmful microorganism" dates from 1871.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

germ (jûrm)
n.

A small mass of protoplasm or cells from which a new organism or one of its parts may develop.
A microorganism, especially a pathogen.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

germ

(jûrm) Pronunciation Key
A microscopic organism or agent, especially one that is pathogenic, such as a bacterium or virus.

Our Living Language : The terms germ and microbe have been used to refer to invisible agents of disease since the nineteenth century, when scientists introduced the germ theory of disease, the idea that infections and contagious diseases are caused by microorganisms. Microbe, a shortening and alteration of microorganism, comes from the Greek prefix mikro-, "small," and the word bios, "life." Scientists no longer use the terms germ and microbe very much. Today they can usually identify the specific agents of disease, such as individual species of bacteria or viruses. To refer generally to agents of disease, they use the term pathogen, from the Greek pathos, "suffering," and the suffix -gen, "producer." They use microorganism to refer to any unicellular organism, whether disease-causing or not.

Example sentences

These nano-sized sensors would float around the bloodstream until they ran into

some toxic chemical or disease-causing germ.

Infectious disease used to be a simple matter: this germ causes that illness.

The ensuing grumbling about the unreliability of polls sparked the germ of an

idea.

Preliminary tests showed the powder to be cornstarch and wheat germ.

Use Dictionary.com faster without ads >>

Barr body biological warfare blastogenesis diploblastic ectoderm epiblast

Matching Quote

"Everything that was ever to happen to me in the future had its germ or impulse in the conditions of my life on Dover Street. My friendships, my advantages and disadvantages, my gifts, my habits, my ambitions—these were the materials out of which I built my after life, in the open workshop of America. My days in the slums were pregnant with possibilities; it only needed the ripeness of events to make them fruit forth in realities. Steadily as I worked to win America, America advanced to lie at my feet. I was an heir, on Dover Street, awaiting maturity. I was a princess waiting to be led to the throne."

-Mary Antin