seminal

seminal (ˈsɛmɪnəl)

—*adj*
1.	potentially capable of development
2.	highly original, influential, and important
3.	rudimentary or unformed
4.	of or relating to semen: seminal fluid
5.	biology of or relating to seed

[C14: from Late Latin sēminālis belonging to seed, from Latin sēmen seed]

semi'nality

—n

'seminally

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

seminal

late 14c., "of seed or semen," from O.Fr. seminal (14c.), from L. seminalis, from semen (gen. seminis) "seed" (see semen). Fig. sense of "full of possibilities" is attested from 1630s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

seminal sem·i·nal (sěm'ə-nəl)
adj.
Of, relating to, containing, or conveying semen or seed.

Example sentences

Prominent designers from an array of disciplines identify books that were

seminal in shaping their lives and work.

In the first of a regular series of columns, the seminal designer shares his

vision on the state of design and his creative drive.

Or if they should play at part at all in a seminal moment in a decade-long war

on terror.

He was a truly great physicist and astronomer who had made seminal discoveries

in observational cosmology.

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Related Words

ejaculatory duct seminal fluid

seminal principle seminal vesicle

Matching Quote

"In the history of human inquiry, philosophy has the place of the initial central sun, seminal and tumultuous; from time to time it throws of some portion of itself to take station as a science, a planet, cool and well regulated, progressing steadily towards a distant final state.... Is it not possible that the next century may see the birth, through the joint efforts of philosophers, grammarians, and numerous other students of language, of a true and comprehensive science of language? Then we shall have rid ourselves of one more part of philosophy (there will still be plenty left) in the only way we ever can get rid of philosophy, by kicking it upstairs."

-John Austin